Found Dead
by Owliness
Summary: Naruto X NCIS crossover. A marine is found dead in a small cafe, two teenagers tried to help him. But why is Gibbs getting a strange feeling in his gut? No parings, Team 7 are 15  except Kakashi  AU
1. Prolouge

**Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or Naruto.**

The shadows in his peripheral vision seemed to flicker, and he turned to look. There was nothing there, but something was telling him 'Danger'. His footsteps seemed to echo in the dark streets as he picked up the pace slightly. He had survived the war, so walking home should be no problem right? Only now he wasn't so sure. Even after returning, he didn't feel safe – almost as if he was being followed everywhere he went. He felt there were always eyes on him, but walking alone down a dark street in the early hours of the morning wasn't helping his paranoia.

He caught another flicker in the corner of his eye and once again it was gone when he turned to look. His breath was coming faster now, and his footsteps were becoming faster. All he wanted was to get home and sleep even if what happened… he refused to think about that. It was in the past now. He hoped. After all, there was these shadows following him now and they hadn't been there before.

His eyes focused on the light of the street ahead and his footsteps became faster still, but not quite running. That would seem desperate, and he would not succumb to his paranoia.

That was his last thought before a sharp pain hit the side of his neck and he fell to the ground, just as the sun cast its light over the scene.

**Just the prologue, what do you think? NCIS and Naruto will come in later :P**

**This has not been checked. **


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or NCIS. **

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><p>The sun was shining brightly over the rooftops of Konoha as its inhabitants went around the usual business. The academy students were studying hard, the ninjas were training and the hokage was 'working'.<p>

Tsunande sighed as she read through the 98th mission request for the day. Not that anyone was counting at all… It was basically a standard assassination request – "Blah blah did this… Please send shinobi to dispose of… wait, WHERE?" Tsunande shouted in surprise, causing the two ANBU guards to enter her office. They were used to her mumblings and random destruction of furniture, however they weren't expecting that.

She waved them out, muttering that it was a false alarm, her eyes never leaving the paper. Tsunande reread the words of the letter in her hand.

_I am requesting for shinobi from the Village Hidden in the Leaves to take care of a problem for me. _

_A man I know recently committed despicable acts which the authorities are continuing to ignore. Therefore I have decided to take matters into my own hands. Or rather, the capable hands of your shinobi._

_The mission details are as follows;_

_Sergeant Michael Andrews of the United States Marine Corp is the target.  
>He is currently staying at the Fireworks Hotel after returning from a deployment.<br>He lives alone.  
>The sergeant is currently on leave, so will not be attending any sort of work.<em>

_This mission will take place outside the treaty zone. ANBU cannot accept the mission, and a basic knowledge of the English language is necessary, along with knowledge of the culture of the USA. I believe this is taught is your Academy. I will pay whatever is necessary – this must be done._

_Edgar Tement_

It wasn't that the mission itself was strange, the hokage mused as she sank into her chair. It was the location. The treaty of the Hidden Continent with the outside world was common knowledge in the continent, but they believed that the people of the outside world thought them to be a myth. There certainly wasn't much trading between them anymore.

Tsunande leaned forward, rubbing her forehead as she did so and trying to recall the details she had learn in her youth. "The treaty states… that ANBU cannot accept missions… that their satellites cant record us… that we will not be attacked if we don't first launch the attack…" Tsunande thought. The memories were fuzzy, but she was sure that was the main points. There were certainly no restrictions on sending ninjas not part of the black ops.

The Hokage turned to her list of available ninjas. The area had been receiving an increased amount of rouge attacks, and as such many of the available jōnin and chūnin ninjas had been requested for protection missions. That is, the ones not recovering, teaching or guarding the village. The majority of Genin teams were on missions, mostly to help with repairs to buildings and property, or to hunt down missing animals.

But the mission would be impossible for genins… wouldn't it? She checked over her list of available teams. There were the newest graduations, none of them with a kill to their name. That wouldn't work, sending someone to make their first kill in cold blood. She sighed and moved further down the list. There were a lot of genins on protective assignments too… since when were people this paranoid anyway?

There was only one available team. "Shizune!" called the hokage. The dark haired woman hurried in immediately.  
>"Yes, Tsunande-sama?" she asked hurriedly.<p>

"Get me Team 7" Tsunande ordered. "They're getting a new mission."

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, over at Squad 7's usually training ground, the 4 members of the team were sparring. Read: Kakashi was reading his book while his students (coughNarutocough) attempted to land a hit on him. Sasuke and Sakura on the other hand, were observing the one-sided battle for the perfect time to strike.<p>

This continued for several minutes until Kakashi grew tired of the constant dodging and hit one of the Naruto's into "Sakura", who was standing on his left side. Both the Naruto and Sakura exploded.

Kakashi put his book away warily, this just got interesting. He tossed a kunai at Sasuke, who dodged easily. Kakashi turned his attention back to the Naruto clones who were continuing to attack him and quickly worked his way through them. They all vanished in little puffs of smoke when struck, leaving only Sasuke in sight. The silver-haired jounin turned his attention to the Uchiha who was in a combat position.

Kakashi wasn't fooled. He was familiar with this trick of his students. Naruto would create clones and henge them into his teammates. While they provided a distraction the real people would observe the enemy's fighting style. When one of the clones was destroyed, they were discovered or they found the weakness they were searching for, Team 7 would attack in unison. It was an almost perfect strategy, playing to the strengths of every one of them. It was, unfortunately for Kakashi, almost impossible to plan against.

The teacher turned his full attention to his "student".  
>"I would have expected you to attack by now" he commented nonchalantly. "You guys have normally come out of hiding by this stage."<br>The Sasuke clone smirked. "Really? Who said we were hiding?" It asked.  
>"Well you're not he-"His sentence was cut off as Sasuke abruptly launched a hail of kunai at him. Kakashi cursed under his breath as he withdrew his own knife to deflect the ones flying through the air.<p>

The barrage stopped as suddenly as it had started. Kakashi didn't let down his guard, there were plenty more tricks available to Sasuke, and his teammates hadn't shown up yet. Speaking of teammates, Kakashi frowned, and scanned the area for chakra signatures. Either they were getting better at hiding, or they were a long way off. But that didn't make sense, if they were far enough away to not be found then Naruto couldn't have a clone. So this was the real Sasuke then? Just to make sure, he flicked a kunai at the boys shoulder. Sasuke's eyes widened slightly, but before he had time to dodge the knife had struck his shoulder, tearing through the blue fabric.

The figure didn't disappear. So Sasuke was really here then? The shinobi in question was glaring at Kakashi while he gently worked the blade free from his shoulder. The wound wasn't deep, but it appeared painful as Sasuke inspected it as well as he could.

With his left hand clamped firmly over the open cut to help stem the bleeding, Sasuke redyed his injured arm as best he could, with the blood-soaked blade in his hand. The seconds ticked by as teacher and student stared each other down. Then without warning the Uchiha dropped the blade and removed his hand, already flying through the seals for a jutsu, and only slightly hampered by his arm. Apparently, the wound wasn't as bad as he first thought, mused Kakashi as he prepared his own seals in response.

Kakashi was so focused on both Sasuke's and his own seals that he didn't notice the almost inaudible _poofs_, nor felt the hidden presence behind him. What he did notice was the cold steel of the two blades, one at his side and one at his neck.

"Bang, you're dead" shouted a familiar voice.  
>"Naruto, don't yell so loud" scolded a different voice, female this time from his other side.<p>

From a few metres away Sasuke smirked again. "We win" he informed the shocked teacher. The black haired shinobi was already struggling out of his shirt. He threw an irritated glance over at the three of them.  
>"Are you going to stand there all day or are you going to help me?" he asked sarcastically.<p>

Sakura instantly replaced her kunai into her holster and withdrew a roll of bandages instead. She hurried over while Naruto stepped back slower. Their fights had never ended like this before – in an effort to teach his students to always watch their backs, even if the fight appears to have been won Kakashi had often randomly attacked after a spar was over. Kakashi however, noticed his students tense posture and still drawn weapon.  
>"I'm not going to attack" he assured the blond. "You guys did well – I would be dead if this were a real fight." He smiled at his student "and your teamwork is really improving – you couldn't have done this when I first accepted you as students. Speaking of doing stuff, what did you do? I couldn't' figure out this strategy at all."<p>

Naruto laughed "I guess it worked then. Sakura and I both transformed into blades of grass*, hiding our chakra at the same time"

"So you were never hiding?"

All three shook their heads, as Sasuke and Sakura had rejoined the group. Sasuke had a bandage across his shoulder, but he wouldn't need it for long.

"Then I have one more question. Why did Sasuke let himself be hit?"

Naruto seemed to regain more energy at this. "It was my idea!" he shouted. "You wouldn't focus on him if you thought it was just a clone, so if he got hit then you would know it was really him. We needed you to stop searching so much for us!"

Naruto continued to shout about his brilliant plan, and his three teammate's sweat dropped.  
>"How can he have so much energy?" moaned Sakura. "We've been training since 8:00 o'clock this morning."<p>

"No idea" Kakashi replied. "But training's over for the day."  
>"Why?" questioned Sasuke.<br>"We have a visitor." Kakashi gestured to the side of the training field where Shizune was waiting patiently for them to finish. Naruto noticed what had attracted the attention of his friends and moved back to join them. Squad 7 fell silent.

Shizune cleared her throat to speak "you are required at the Hokage's office for a mission briefing" she explained to the expectant shinobi.

The younger members exchanged a glance, but they all prepared to follow the Kunoichi back to the centre of Konoha. Kakashi frowned, but followed anyway. He was normally told in advance when his team was to be assigned a mission, but he had heard nothing. Surely a genin team – admittedly one with a knack for getting into trouble – would not have a mission so important that it couldn't wait until the next day. This was the sort of call he would get in ANBU.

The three genin were all wondering the same thing – what was so important that it couldn't wait? Kakashi generally gave them mission briefings, but this was different -they could all feel it, something big was about to happen.

So the journey passed in relative silence, with all the ninjas lost in thought. What was so important about this new mission?

**AH! I got this up on the weekend :) Now I really have to do my homework, lucky this is a long weekend -.- I have an assignment due last Friday to do, hmm. But I've been busy the last couple of days, it was my friends birthday yesterday (on Saturday), and one of my other friends and I organized a party for her :). We ran around on the playground and acted like idiots, and got stalked by a bird. BUT ENOUGH ABOUT ME!  
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**A couple of things I feel that I should clarify - the massacre did happen. There's just this whole other side story that will be explained later. Something else about that - I don't actually know the cannon very well, I've watched up to episode 101 (I love team 7, I don't want to see Sasuke leave :P). **

**This is also my first time writing a serious-type story and also writing for Naruto and NCIS (although I am completely obsessed with NCIS, if there's a repeat on TV my parents are like: what one is this? The scary part is that I can normally tell after watching a few minutes or less).**


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or NCIS**

"So let me get this straight. You want a genin team to go on an A ranked mission - An assassination mission in a country on the other side of the world. When we're on the brink of war." Kakashi stated.

"I think you covered the main points" replied the 5th Hokage as she leaned back in her chair slightly.

"Isn't this a mission for the ANBU though?" asked Sakura curiously.

"It should be, yes. However, there is a law preventing them from accepting the mission - a treaty to be precise, which will start a war if broken. We can't afford to send a Jōnin team, and it's too far for a solo mission. I don't have any available chūnin who I trust for an assassination. And I don't trust you kids with it either. I expect Kakashi to be the one to actually carry out the attack. You three are mostly there for gathering information. You are still too young to be considered adults in that country, so people may talk in front of you. Or maybe not, but it should get you out of trouble" explained the sannin. The younger members of team 7 looked at her a bit oddly for the last sentence, but accepted the explanation.

Their sensei nodded. "I was planning on doing that anyway" he said.

"Meet here tomorrow at 0600. Wear civilian clothes, and keep your weapons separate. Dismissed"

The shinobi bowed respectfully and left the room through the door, except for Kakashi who just vanished in a puff of smoke like usual.

OOOOO

The next morning found Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke waiting in the designated location. Kakashi of course, was nowhere to be found. The Hokage sighed impatiently.

"Is he ever on time?" she asked the teens. They all shook their heads. Tsunande sighed again.

"Might as well get started anyway" she grumbled. "Dog."

The genin jumped in surprise, kunai appearing in their hands when a full-uniformed ANBU appeared out of nowhere.

"Hokage-sama"

"Right. These three" she gestured vaguely to the genin. "Will need to carry weapons and gear through metal detectors. They haven't learnt how to seal supplies. If their teacher was here, it would be up to him. But you know Kakashi…"

The ANBU nodded.

"Yeah. Make sure the Uchiha can see your seals." Tsunande handed him some scrolls.

"Yes, Hokage-sama" The dog masked shinobi accepted the scrolls and turned to Team 7. "I need your weapons."

They handed him the cases containing various sharp, pointy objects and he nodded.

"The weapons on your body can be concealed by a henge. Just make sure there is nothing visible – there will be human guards as well." Like most of the ANBU, Dog spoke in a monotone, but Team 7 accepted the advice. They had no experience with this type of mission after all.

"The seals are…." Sasuke activated his sharingan, and watched closely as the jutsu was completed.

Soon, all three team member's weapons had been sealed in the scrolls, which were then safely tucked away in bags. Kakashi chose that moment to show up.

"YOU'RE LATE!" shouted Naruto, Sakura and, surprisingly Tsunande. The Uchiha blinked at her in surprise, while the Jōnin sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, muttering some crazy excuse about a fight between a worm and a beetle that threatened the safety of the world.

"You're running out of excuses sensei" stated Sasuke. Kakashi pretended to be insulted.

"It wasn't an excuse" he informed them. The attending ANBU guard had been watching the proceedings with hidden amusement, but seeing as though the blond hokage was about to start throwing her possessions at the shinobi, he decided to interrupt.

"As long as they remember to henge themselves to forms without weapons, there should be no problems with security" he reported.

Naruto, who had forgotten about the elite ninjas presence jumped in surprise. Sasuke and Sakura were also surprised, but they hid it better than their blond haired teammate who was shouting something about sneaking up on people. Unfortunately for Sasuke, Naruto was right beside him. He felt his eyebrow twitch.

"Dobe. Shut up."

Naruto huffed, and was about to should back when he caught the warning looks being thrown at him by Kakashi and Sakura. Wisely, he just muttered "Teme" back, and stood still. Sasuke rolled his eyes, but didn't comment.

"Thank you," the Hokage nodded to dismiss the ANBU, who bowed and was gone. She turned her attention to the waiting shinobi.

"Dismissed. Don't die on me"

Team 7 bowed and left the room. Their mission had begun.

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><p>"Ooh Teme! Look at that!"<p>

Sasuke _felt_ his eye twitch. They were currently at the airport, and had had no trouble with security. Not that they were expecting any of course, but still… you never know. Naruto it seemed, was not worried in the slightest, and was currently bouncing off the walls. Literally - which was why Sasuke now found himself with the 'pleasant' task of monitoring the overexcited blond. Kakashi was going to pay.

Said man was completely absorbed in his book and ignoring the glares being sent at him by his students – Sakura for reading porn in public (her description had been much more colourful) and Sasuke for the aforementioned task. As usual, Naruto was oblivious, and happily examining the unusual – for them – scene. Sasuke wondered how he was suppressing his instincts. Shinobi did not mix well with large crowds. Maybe that was why Kakashi was ignoring them in favour of his book…

"Flight 0332, destination Washington, now boarding in gate 2"

Already on edge from the crowd, the unexpected noise was enough to draw a weapon – knee jerk reaction – but he found none. Naruto had stilled, and both he and Sakura appeared to be reaching for weapons. Their teacher put away his book and sighed.

"It will only get worse on the plane. Try to relax," he said, but they could all see the tenseness in his shoulders. Sasuke really hoped that wherever they were going would be less claustrophobic, but somehow he doubted it.

Team 7 grabbed their bags and left the terminal. Soon, they had boarded the plane and were ready for takeoff. And Sasuke was about to kill everyone on this plane – he really hated being close to people. Except for his team… somehow, that made him feel safe. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and had grabbed the offending wrist before realising that it was just his teacher.

"Don't kill the civilians. Try meditating for a while – I know you won't sleep."

Sasuke nodded, easily picking up the breathing pattern. He heard Kakashi say the same thing to Sakura, and felt her pick up the rhythm of his own breathing. Naruto was distracting himself by talking to people, so they let him be.

They didn't talk for the rest of the flight, each occupied by their own activities.

* * *

><p>"Argh" groaned Tony. "I really, really hate seminars".<p>

"We know" groaned McGee and Ziva. The senior field agent had been complaining for the last 4 hours, and it was getting annoying. The second time. But now, DiNozzo was lucky to still be alive if the looks Ziva was sending him were anything to go by.

"Why do we even have to go to this thing?" They were climbing the stairs to the conference room where the seminar would take place, and there were already quite a few people standing around. "I mean, we already know how to interrogate kids and teenagers, so I really can't see the point of this at all…"

Tony continued to ramble on, ignorant of the fact that his teammates were doing their best to ignore the rant coming out of his mouth. Unfortunately (for them) they weren't succeeding.

A minute later, a sharp slap to the back of a head joined the list of things that couldn't easily be ignored.

"Guess Gibbs just wants to get this over with" sighed Tony, watching the retreating back of their team leader. Ziva and McGee just nodded in agreement and the three of them followed the boss into the lion's den. Really, they were just being overdramatic. But when would they need this? Their own methods worked 100% of the time, and no kids were that different. Right?

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><p><strong>AN: Sorry, sorry, sorry**... **This is what? A month late? More? And it really sucks... there are some reasons, but it's mostly because I was lazy. It doesn't help that I just want them to meet already, but I discovered that I really suck at writing for NCIS...**

**The next chapter will skip ahead a bit, but I've started writing it. Actually, the next chapter was the original beginning to the story. It's school holidays, so it should be up in the next week, but then again it's me...**

**Thanks to the people who reviewed, favourited (don't think that's a word :P) and alerted ^.^  
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	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or NCIS**

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><p>Sasuke sighed as he slipped into the shadows to change his henge yet again. Along with Naruto, he had been following their target for hours. Kakashi and Sakura were taking the odd days, but still. This guy's routine didn't vary in the slightest, and in total it had been 13 days. It was time for them to make a move, Sasuke thought.<p>

He glanced across the street just in time to see Naruto change back to himself. He caught the blond's eye, and nodded his understanding. On a Saturday night, the target walked around the streets. He seemed to be begging for trouble, and during the time span of one night, Sakura had reported five fights among random strangers. He dropped his own henge and Naruto called out and waved from across the street before coming to join him, just a carefree teenager meeting a friend.

Sasuke nodded back in greeting and they started walking to meet Naruto's clone, cast before his henge. Just after they caught sight of it, the clone turned away and vanished. Naruto concentrated for a second as it relayed information to him.

"He stopped in the same place" remarked Naruto.

Sasuke sighed, and the entered the small café. Their target was sitting near the window, and the two shinobi made note of the fact as they chose their own table. There would be at least an hour's wait while their target ate a meal.

He sighed again, and scanned the other occupants of the room. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Naruto doing the same thing. There weren't many people in the room, and there were no ninjas, or anyone who looked like they could fight at all.

"What do you want?" he asked the blond sitting across from him.  
>"Doesn't matter" he replied distracted, and still watching the people around them.<p>

The Uchiha nodded and ordered tea for both of them. The girl behind the counter looked at him a bit weirdly, but wrote down the order and gave him a number. Thanking her, he went back to the table. Naruto now appeared to be tracing the design of fake wood printed on the surface, but Sasuke could see his eyes were focused elsewhere.

"How much longer are we doing this?" he asked his teammate. Doing missions was all very well and good and it sure beat doing D ranks, but... Following someone for two weeks was a bit much – even if it was in a different country.

"It's tomorrow. You're bored too?" answered Naruto with a grin.

"Hn" grunted Sasuke. Naruto was getting better at reading emotions – not that anyone outside his close friends even realised it. Sasuke felt a small bubble of anger welling up inside his stomach, but squashed it quickly. They were on a mission, now was not the time to be dwelling on the inconsistencies and shortcomings of the village.

They sat in silence until the serving girl brought over their tea. They both thanked her, before lapsing back to their previous level of conversation – that is, none. Sasuke was amazed that Naruto could remain quiet for so long, normally he would never shut up.

They slowly drank their tea, but continued to scan each customer entering and leaving the store. A shinobi never let his guard down, not even in a place like this. Their target was close to finishing a sandwich, but still had a close to full cup of coffee. They would be here for a while yet. Sasuke glanced back over to Naruto. The blond appeared to be in deep thought and finding the window very interesting.

Noticing that Sasuke was looking, Naruto caught his eye and subtly jerked his head towards the window he had been staring at. Sasuke followed his eyes, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. He tilted his head slightly to show his confusion. What was so interesting out there?

"Thought I saw something" mumbled Naruto. "Guess I made a mistake." Sasuke frowned, Naruto rarely made mistakes with things like that. He turned back to the window, and froze. There was a rock flying towards the window, and not enough time to do anything about it. Their target was sitting right in its path. If the window didn't stop it then the rock would connect with his head.

Sasuke processed all this in the split second it took for the rock to travel the final few centimetres and shatter the window. A flash of silver caught his eye, amidst the falling glass. Wait… silver?

What appeared to be a senbon needle was flying towards their target, and embedding itself in his neck. The serving girl screamed as their target collapsed. Sasuke glanced over at Naruto. This was something interesting.

Abandoning their drinks, the two shinobi ran across the room, but nowhere near as fast as they could. No point in raising suspicion after all. They bent over the body, Naruto checking for signs of life while Sasuke inspected the wounds. He was right when he saw the needle; it was currently stuck in the target's neck. Sasuke pulled it out, hiding the distinct shinobi weapon in his pocket. Senbon too were uncommon here.

The body was covered in small scratches from the glass, as well as a deeper cut on his head where the brick had struck. The small mark caused by the senbon was hardly noticeable, but any half-decent shinobi would find it there.

"No vital signs" reported Naruto, evidently done with his inspection.

"I-I called 911" said the shaking waitress, bending down beside the fallen man's head. "Do either of you know CPR?"

CPR? They knew how to save a life, not that they really wanted to. The man currently lying dead was the target of an assassination, the only reason they appeared to be concerned was to make sure he was actually dead, unlike the Zabuza incident. They both shook their heads, and all three of them stood up, Naruto helping the employee. The shinobi had to give her credit, for a civilian she was handling this well. They glanced around at the other customers of the café. Most of them were pale and a few looked like they were going to collapse. Sasuke suppressed a groan. Now their behaviour would stand out even more.

When Naruto began trying to calm down the shaken customers, Sasuke wandered over to the window and scanned the surrounding area. He knew that he would be more of a burden if he tried to help Naruto. People-skills had never been his strong point. Briefly, he activated his sharingan to help with the search and at the same time hoping no one would see it. They were meant to stay undercover – although that had been blown when they had rushed to 'help' the man.

His teammate wandered over.

"Anything there?" he murmured in Sasuke's ear, quietly enough that the other people in the room couldn't hear. Sasuke shook his head.

"Couldn't see anything" he muttered back, and Naruto nodded. They both looked outside for a second longer.

"Now we have to wait for the police to show up" Naruto informed Sasuke, who groaned quietly.

"Yay."

* * *

><p><em>Riiiiinnggg!<em>

Gibbs woke with a start, instinctively reaching for his phone. Finding it missing, he stood up and took in his surroundings. He was in his basement, and judging by his previous position (lying on the floor) he had fallen asleep working on his boat.

_Riiiinnnggg!_

He sighed and strode over to his worktable. Once there, he unscrewed one of the many jars of building supplies to retrieve his mobile. He glared at it for a few moments before he flipped open the offending device and answering the call.

"Gibbs"

"Dead marine, café on 15th street. Your team will meet you there." The agent on the other end of the line sounded tired, and after glancing at the clock Gibbs couldn't blame him. It was 3am after all.

"Right" replied Gibbs. It was a short conversation, but it got the message across. He dressed and was out the door with all his gear in less than 10 minutes. He got into his car and 15 minutes later was standing outside the small, dingy café. There were a few people around – obviously the witnesses.

The senior field agent got out of his car and went to talk to the metro cop who was in charge. While he was walking he heard the screech of tires that signalled the arrival of the only female member of the team. He saw out of the corner of his eye the blond teenage boy jerk up at the sudden sound, and filed it away for future reference.

Ziva David walked over to where he was standing. "Hey boss. Tony and McGee went to get the truck. I passed Ducky on his way here. What have we got?"

Gibbs nodded in greeting and acknowledgment. "Dead Marine. Haven't got the details."

The dark-haired agent nodded. "Are we going to talk to the officer in charge here?

"No need, he's here to talk to you" a male voice interrupted. The NCIS agents turned to face the officer.

"Are you the agents from NCIS" asked the man. After receiving Gibbs's nod of confirmation, he seemed to relax slightly. "Officer Smith. I took witness statements, but after our ME checked the fingerprints and we found it was a marine we kept them here." Smith ran a tired hand over his face.

"They aren't happy. But it's the middle of the night, so it's understandable. The victim is Sergeant Michael Andrews; he appears to have been hit on the head by a rock thrown through the window." Their conversation was interrupted but the arrival of the two NCIS trucks. Officer Smith took his leave, and Metro packed up leaving the crime scene free for the agents. Ducky immediately took his gear inside the building, with Palmer following. Tony and Ziva both took out cameras, while McGee collected his sketchpad. Gibbs watched his team work for moment before he wandered over to where the witnesses were waiting.

As soon as he got there, there was an immediate "Can we go now?" From the blond teen he had spotted before. Gibbs sighed. This was going to take a long time.

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><p><strong>Again, I'm so sorry about the wait. I looked at my last chapter, I said this one should be up before the end of the school holidays. We start week 4 tomorrow :S I should stop telling people to expect the chapter the next weekend is the 40 hour famine, which is basically a fundraiser that involves participants getting people to sponsordonate while they give something up for 40 hours. It can be anything from food, to talking, to technology. It's also the last weekend before an assignment I've had for the last 5 weeks is due, so I have to do that...**

**Sorry if the last scene is choppy, I don't particularly like it but I kept you guys waiting long enough. I'm not sure what to do with the perspective now - do I repeat scenes from the perspective of Naruto and then NCIS, keep it to one only, or for each scene have a different perspective? **

**The timeline for this is really messed up... ignore that part please? :)  
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**Thanks for the reviews, favs and alerts. This is now my most popular story :)  
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	5. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or NCIS**

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><p>As soon as the bright yellow car had slid to a stop just outside of the police-tape border, Naruto had woken from his light slumber. Unfortunately for Sasuke, since he was being used as a pillow that meant he got head-butted. Of course, being the people that they were this started a verbal fight between the two, which was only broken when the grey-haired man wearing a jacket that declared him an agent of NCIS walked over to where the shinobi were waiting with the other witnesses.<p>

As soon as the man was in hearing range, Naruto asked the question that was on most of the people's minds.

"Can we go now?"

Sasuke would have sworn that he heard to agent sign before he answered.

"Not yet. We have to ask you a few questions first."

Of course, Naruto being Naruto he had to complain about that.

"But we just got questioned by those other guys, and we've…"  
>He would have gone on longer if Sasuke hadn't effectively told him to shut up – by punching him, but that fact was unimportant. Naruto glared, but got the message and fell silent. The agent met Sasuke's dark eyes for a second before he looked away and once again addressed the witnesses.<p>

"OK, so I know it's late, and you're tired. So we'll make this quick." His eyes swept over the group once more before he walked over to one of the customers and started questioning him in an undertone. Both the shinobi could still hear fine, although after the first few lines were exchanged they tuned out the questioning.

Naruto and Sasuke took the opportunity to watch the agent's progress. What they saw was almost the exact same as a few hours earlier, when the Metro Police, as they had heard them referred to were at the crime scene. Although he didn't have any reason to, Sasuke kept watching the agents for lack of anything better to do. Naruto decided to make use of the time by sleeping. Of course, he had to use Sasuke as a pillow. Said pillow ignored to blond head on his shoulder, and continued to look straight ahead with his face blank of any expression.

When it was their turn to be questioned, Naruto simply shifted into a more comfortable position. Sasuke sighed, that meant he was acting as the voice. It was probably for the best, after all there had been several times in the last interview where Naruto had nearly let something slip.

The NCIS agent hesitated for a moment, and sat down beside Sasuke, resting against the wall.

"I'm Special Agent Gibbs, and I'll be leading this investigation. Would you mind answering a few questions for me?

Sasuke shook his head, thinking 'not like we get a choice anyway.'

"Thank you. We'll start with the basics - you're names?"  
>Apparently he didn't realise that the ninja had heard his other interviews and knew he was acting, and also the questions he would ask.<p>

"Sasuke Uchiha, the idiot here is Naruto Uzumaki ."

"Oi… I'm not an idiot" mumbled Naruto, apparently half asleep.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and would have replied if not for the second question by the agent.

"Age?"

"We're both 15." Agent Gibbs seemed taken aback for a moment before he recovered.

"And what did you see tonight?"

Sasuke recounted the story almost word for word to what he told the officer from earlier. He was almost finished when a flash of movement caught his eye. He stiffened, and beside him he felt Naruto do the same, although he wasn't sure if his friend had seen the projectile or was just responding to his own movements.

Doing some quick calculations, Sasuke realised he was a direct target for the rock flying towards his head, and with the way he was sitting he couldn't duck. Standing up or catching the rock would reveal his speed, and that wasn't something he wanted to do. So he chose the only option left – push the NCIS agent out the way and move. All of this happened within a few second, and a moment later the agent was on the ground with Sasuke next to him.

Now fully awake, Naruto turned to inspect the damage done. The rock was half imbedded in the wall, directly where Sasuke's head had been seconds before. Speaking of his teammate… Sasuke had thrown himself sideways to avoid the impact, and in the process had knocked the NCIS agent down. Said NCIS agent had already collected himself and had drawn his weapon, directing it in the general direction of where the rock had come from.

While he was distracted, Naruto and Sasuke took the opportunity to take a closer look at the rock that was thrown in their direction. Naruto carefully worked it loose from the wall, and turned it over in his hands. They were about to dismiss it as containing no clues when Sasuke's sharp eyes caught sight of the small, but detailed carving adorning the otherwise ordinary rock.

Had he not been trained, Naruto may have dropped the rock out of shock. Carved into the surface was a snake - and they only knew one person who would use that symbol. Both of them looked up, and their eyes met. It was only for a second, but it was enough. They were in trouble, and they both knew it.

* * *

><p>Gibbs wasn't quite sure what to think when the dark haired boy sitting next to him had pushed him out the way and dodged before he had even realised there was a threat to dodge, so he fell back on his training. Pull out his weapon and prepare for a fight. He was on his feet with his gun drawn within a few seconds, but he holstered it soon after. There was no way he would be able to get off a good shot in the dark, and he had more pressing concerns.<p>

He turned his attention to the witnesses who were gathered in the area. The most predominant expression on their faces was shock, with the exception being the two teenagers. It was obvious who the targets were – there was a dent in the wall right where one of the kids had been sitting. For a moment Gibbs wondered how someone could throw an ordinary stone from a fair distance with that degree of accuracy and strength, but he dismissed the thought for a moment.

As if on cue, DiNozzo ran up carrying an evidence bag and a camera. He took a few shots of the impact area and the rock itself, before he held out the bag for the rock. The blond dropped it in the plastic bag without a complaint, but Gibbs saw both their eyes flicker to it for a moment with an emotion he couldn't describe visible, but a moment later they looked up and it was gone. He opened his mouth to speak to the witnesses assembled, but before he could get a word out he was called by the only female on his team.

He waved to show he wouldn't take long, and turned back to the crowd.

"You are free to go, but keep in mind that we may need to contact you later for our investigation. But could you to stay here please" Gibbs glanced at his notebook to check their names "Sasuke and Naruto?" The two boys shrugged, and leant against the wall. One their way past, a few of the other witnesses threw them curious looks, but most were too tired to care. It was only after the others had left the blond of the pair (Naruto, he though) spoke up.

"Why are we still here?" he asked Gibbs. He looked like he didn't care but the tone of his voice suggested otherwise. Gibbs couldn't really blame him – if he had to be stuck outside at 3 am then he wouldn't be too happy either, especially when he was a teenager. But he had an explanation ready.

"You were just attacked – and it was with a rock, which was used to break the window inside where someone died. It's just a safety precaution, but you will be staying under the custody of NCIS for a few days."

Whatever reaction he had been expecting from the two, it was not the one he got. The raven-haired boy leaning against the wall (If he remembered right, this was Sasuke) snorted quietly and the Naruto outright laughed. Gibbs felt a bit annoyed at the two – they could have been seriously injured and now they were being offered help they laughed?

"So what's funny?" he demanded from the amused teens.

Although it looked like Naruto was about to speak, his companion beat him to it.

"It's amusing because we noticed the danger before you, and now you are offering protection. We don't need it." There was very little variation in the tone of his voice, and Gibbs found it difficult to read although the amusement was evident. He was patient in his reply though; the kid was just that – a kid.

"You witnessed something. We don't know if it was a murder or an accident, but whatever it was someone just attacked you with the same weapon used earlier."

Gibbs would have continued if not for the interruption in the form on his youngest agent.

"Uh… Boss? I know you're busy, but you might want to look at this."

Gibbs passed his gaze over the teens once more before turning his attention to his agent.

"What have you found McGee?"

McGee hesitated for a second before he explained.

"On the rock used to break the window, was a carving of a snake. The same carving was on the rock thrown at the witnesses." He glanced at the teens out of the corner of his eye. Gibbs followed his gaze. The two boys didn't appear to have moved, but when he focused on them Gibbs saw the slight tenseness of their shoulders and backs.

"Are we almost done here?"

McGee was startled by the sudden question. "I think so. Ducky's just waiting on you, and the evidence is bagged and tagged. Tony and Ziva have taken plenty of photos too.

Gibbs nodded. "Then I want you to take these two back to headquarters. I'm putting them in protective custody."

McGee was about to leave when they were interrupted by a loud voice.

"Hey – shouldn't you ask us about this? Or at least, tell someone you're taking us?" Naruto seemed agitated, and he kept glancing at his friend leaning next to him.

"Naruto's right, for once. ("Hey!") We're in the city with our teacher and classmate, we can't just leave them."

McGee looked over at Gibbs. "They're right, you know. We probably should tell their guardians as well."

Gibbs sighed. "Can you give us the contact details of your teacher, and we'll have to get your parents to come up."

"Good luck with that. You could try the motel we're staying at for our teacher, but my parents are dead. So are Naruto's." Gibbs knew he wasn't the only one surprised at the almost uncaring tone used by Sasuke in that sentence – McGee's jaw was almost on the floor. He managed to close his mouth to form a sentence.

"I'm sorry for your losses"

"Why?" The teens seemed genuinely confused, although with Sasuke it was hard to tell. The blond elaborated. "You never knew our families, so why would you be sorry?"

Agent McGee struggled to explain himself, and after watching his attempts for a moment Sasuke shook his head.

"Don't bother. The motel we were staying at is the Clockwork Motel on Finch Avenue."

Gibbs made a note of the address in his notebook, and directed his attention to his junior agent.

"Alright. Take them back to headquarters, and keep an eye on them. I don't think there will be an attack, but keep your eyes open. And find out more about our victim."

"Yes Boss" replied McGee, and asked Naruto and Sasuke to follow him. They pushed themselves off the wall, and Gibbs watched them as they followed McGee to the car and got in. He didn't fail to notice how they both got in the backseat, nor the subtle glances they threw to the surrounding area. He watched the car until it had gone, and only then did he enter the café that was now their crime scene.

* * *

><p><strong>Ahh, Late again. I'm really sorry for the long waits between chapters, and I don't blame you if you lose interest. I have discovered that I am incredibly lazy when it comes to writing, or doing homework. Speaking of which, I have a maths test tomorrow... the good news is that it's nearly the end of term. Just two more days :) and one of them is sports day, but if the weather's anything like it is right now then that will be cancelled. <strong>

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed, alerted and favourited this story - every time I get the notifications for that I think 'must... write...' It finally worked tonight :)  
><strong>


	6. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or NCIS**

* * *

><p>Gibbs wasn't sure if the two teens were in danger or not, but for now his gut was telling him that they were. However, he knew he could trust his junior field agent for one night, and so turned his full attention to the crime scene and pushing the issue to the back of his mind in the process.<p>

Walking through the doors of the café, the first thing he noticed was the mess caused by the glass. The sparking shards were all over the floor, and it was a wonder that none of the other patrons had been hit, although the shattered window was focused on a central line.

When he finished his initial examination of the scene, Gibbs strode over to where Ducky was crouching beside the body. The rest of his team were either taking photographs (Tony) or bagging and tagging (Ziva). He wondered for a moment whether they had sketched the scene, but made a mental note to check later when he was called over by the medical examiner.

"Hello Jethro" greeted the British doctor.

Gibbs replied with his usual "what have you got Ducky?"

"The body is covered in small lacerations, most likely caused by the glass. None of them are fatal, however, and the killing blow," he tilted the victims head slightly "appears to have been caused by the rock itself, striking the head. The death appears to have been an accident."

Gibbs looked out the window. The large glass planes had been completely shattered; it would have taken a lot of power to be able to do that. Yet if anyone was just outside, they would have been fairly visible and chances were that at least one of the customers would have seen something. But none of them reported seeing someone outside.

He sighed. "Maybe."

Ducky studied his expression for a moment. "Your gut is telling you otherwise, isn't it?"

"Yeah" the special agent pulled himself up, and turned his attention to the rest of his team. Ziva was packing away the bags of evidence into their van while Tony was finishing up with the photographs.

Gibbs went over to Ziva, and while they were packing the plastic bags of evidence into the truck, he brought her up to date on the situation concerning the witnesses. The former Mossard officer did not show outward signs of shock, but Gibbs knew her well enough to tell it was there. She agreed with him about the protection though.

Once they finished packing the evidence, Ziva grabbed the bags they needed and the two agents walked back into the café. Now the only things left to do were to collect all the fragments of glass on the floor and take the body out of there, which was in the process of happening.

However, the glass alone meant there was still a lot of work to be done at the scene before they could go back to headquarters, and the early start meant tired agents. All in all, it wasn't the best start to a case.

* * *

><p>The ride back to NCIS headquarters was long and boring for Naruto. Sasuke, at the blonds insistence had fallen asleep almost as soon as they got into the car so now there was no one to talk to.<p>

"So what are your names?"

Oops, he had forgotten about the NCIS agent driving. Naruto thought his name might have been MacBee… at least that's what it sounded like. Better reply anyway.

"I'm Naruto. The one sleeping is Sasuke," he told the agent. Sasuke shifted slightly in response to his name, but went back to sleep a minute later.

After a moment's pause, MacBee spoke again. "I'm Special Agent McGee and you met Gibbs. You'll meet Special Agents Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David tomorrow."

Oh yeah, the protective-custody thing. A waste of time, and they would be safer in Konoha. Although the agents didn't know that, Naruto couldn't help but feel slightly annoyed at that. He was touched by their concern though, so he was willing to be nice.

"Ok." But that didn't mean he was going to have an in depth conversation at 3 in the morning when it had been over 24 hours since he had slept.

"Are you in shock?" inquired the NCIS agent. "You're not talking much…"

Naruto smiled at him. "I'm just tired; it's been a really long time since I last slept."

"Ah, right," replied McGee.

After that, the drive passed in silence although Naruto could feel the occasional glances sent at him through the mirror.

About 10 minutes later, the car paused outside the gate to the Navy Yard, as a nearby sign declared it. Naruto sat up straighter, and watched with curiosity as McGee showed his ID to the guards and was waved through. They drove for a minute longer before reaching a large parking lot mostly filled with black sedans. McGee parked, and turned around in his seat to face the shinobi.

"Sorry, but you're going to have to wake your friend up. I have to get you both visitor passes."

Naruto groaned quietly, and turned to his sleeping friend.

"Oi, wake up."

Sasuke stirred… and went back to sleep. Naruto sighed.

"Sasuke, get up." At the sound of his name Sasuke's dark eyes snapped open, and he became fully alert. Agent McGee blinked at the sudden change.

Naruto grinned at his friend, and answered the question in his eyes. "Nice of you to join us - we have to get visitor passes for NCIS."

Sasuke nodded, calmly undid his seatbelt and stepped out of the car. He stretched his muscles, and waited for the other two to get out which they did a moment later. Naruto hurried around the car to join his teammate. Agent McGee was waiting patiently for the two to be ready, although he glanced around to check the surroundings once or twice.

Once he saw that they were ready, he introduced himself to Sasuke, who gave his own name as a reply. McGee turned around and guided the teens to the doors of NCIS. With the agent's back turned, the shinobi began an animated, by silent discussion.

_"Have you got a henge up?" _

_"No. You?"_

_"Nope."_

_"Think they'll have metal detectors? _

_"Yep."_

_"Think we'll get away with the smoke?"_

_"Have to try…"_

Naruto sighed but nodded to show his agreement with Sasuke. They needed to keep their weapons and avoid suspicion. Discreetly, he brought his hands together in a seal, and concentrating on causing as little smoke as possible he activated the jutsu. Naruto felt the spike of chakra from his right and knew Sasuke had performed the technique also. A glance at Sasuke confirmed that his weapons were hidden from machines – they were not careless enough to have their weapons obvious.

They were just in time too, for it was only a few seconds later that McGee led them into the foyer of the NCIS building. The inside was plain, but brightly lit with a security guard behind a desk. McGee led them over to the man, and briefly explained the situation. The guard nodded, and produced two forms to be filled out, handing one to Naruto and one to Sasuke, along with a pen each.

Naruto glanced down at the form and began filling it out, making up details when required and glancing over at Sasuke's sheet on occasion to make sure they had no conflicting facts. Silence fell over the room, broken only by the sound of pens scratching.

When they had both filled in the forms they returned them to the security guard, who scanned them before turning to his computer and filling in the details. To pass the time, Naruto took to staring around the bland room. There wasn't much to look at, so he was about to engage Sasuke in a conversation when the guard broke the silence, handing the two shinobi the visitors tags. McGee thanked the man, and led the shinobi into the building proper.

They had to go through the metal detector, but there was no beep from the machine and it wasn't long before Naruto and Sasuke were taken to the elevator - Sasuke muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'lazy' under his breath, but luckily Naruto was the only one that heard it. McGee pressed the button to take them to their floor, and took the opportunity to explain what was on the different levels to the teens. Both listened carefully, and stored the information in the back of their minds for future reference.

It didn't take long to reach the desired floor. As soon as the elevator doors opened McGee led the Naruto and Sasuke into the large room. They looked around, taking in the bright orange walls and the many computers, some of which were still running scans or searching.

As they followed McGee to his teams work stations, Sasuke leant slightly closer to Naruto. In an undertone, so the agent walking ahead wouldn't hear, he said "Never thought I would see something as bright as your jumpsuit."

Naruto growled. "Orange is an awesome colour!" Unfortunately, he spoke much louder than Sasuke had, and McGee turned around at his outburst.

"You like the walls? They've always distracted me…" said the agent.

Sasuke smirked. "I find orange distracting too."

Naruto attempted to hit Sasuke, who simply ducked. "Later. I really need to sleep."

Naruto glared at him. "You started it!"

"Umm…"

The arguing shinobi stopped and looked at McGee. "This is where my team works. I don't…"

Sasuke and Naruto sat on the floor, and began preparing to sleep. They looked up when McGee hesitated. They waited patiently for him to finish, but really both of them just wanted to sleep.

"Are you OK sleeping on the floor?"

Sasuke stared at him blankly. Why wouldn't they be? It was better than being outside, and there was carpet, so it wasn't like it was a stone floor. Naruto answered for both of them.

"Yeah, we sleep on the floor quite often."

McGee seemed a bit surprised at that, but accepted the answer. He went over to what Sasuke presumed was his desk and sat down, turning on his computers.

"I have to do work now. Sleep if you want."

Sasuke nodded, and Naruto made a small noise of agreement. The Uchiha lay down and closed his eyes. He was about to go to sleep when he felt a weight on his stomach. When he looked down, Sasuke had to resist the urge to roll his eyes - his blond teammate had apparently decided to use Sasuke as a pillow. A couple of years ago, Sasuke would have shoved him off without a second thought, but now he simply shifted him into a more comfortable position and closed his eyes. He was asleep within seconds.

* * *

><p><strong>And a new chapter. I have to go back to school tomorrow :( But I wanted to get this published before the holidays finished, and I did. So now I'm happy, kind of. The next few chapters I have a vague outline of what I want to do, but I have no idea about the timeline, so bear with me on that :)<br>**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed, alerted and favourited this story, it is greatly appreciated :)**


	7. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or NCIS**

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><p>It was around 6:00 in the morning when Gibbs returned to NCIS headquarters. Ziva and DiNozzo had taken the tuck back to the garage, so Gibbs was alone when he travelled up the familiar elevator with his normal cup of coffee in his hand. All in all, it looked like an ordinary day at the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.<p>

It was, mused Gibbs, anything but an ordinary morning. In an ordinary morning, marines would not be killed in a random vandalism attack. Then again, it wasn't just vandalism anymore. The instant the two teenagers had been attacked, the vandals had shown they had intent to harm. Sasuke could, and probably would have been killed if the rock had connected to his head.

Then there was the snake carvings found on both the rocks thrown. There was obviously some meaning behind them. Gibbs's thoughts were interrupted by the ding that announced the elevator arriving at his floor. Gibbs strode out of the elevator and towards the bull pen where he could see McGee typing furiously into his computer. Tony and Ziva evidently hadn't arrived yet, but he couldn't see the teens.

Gibbs quickly covered the ground quickly, prepared to question his youngest agent on his oversight. When he arrived McGee looked up, and quickly gestured to the area behind Gibbs. With a glare, he turned around to see what was so important. When he did, his anger faded. Sasuke and Naruto had fallen asleep on the floor between Ziva's and his own desk. Naruto had his head resting on Sasuke, and the dark haired boy had one arm lightly resting on the blonds back.

Gibbs turned back to his junior agent, who looked noticeably relieved that Gibbs was no longer angry at him.

Quietly, he told Gibbs what happened. "They fell asleep as soon as we got back. Abby brought up the pillow she keeps in her lab when she got in."

Gibbs nodded, and left to go to the director's office. The kids looked like they needed sleep, and Leon Vance would be waiting for an explanation as to why there were two teenagers asleep on the floor of the office. He climbed the stairs, knowing that despite the early hour the director would be in his office.

He arrived at the waiting room, where the director's secretary was typing away into her computer. Ignoring the woman, Gibbs walked past and opened the silver doors. Director Vance was sitting behind his desk with his fingers interlaced in front of him and a serious expression on his face. He waited until Gibbs had shut the door and crossed the room before beginning the conversation.

"Gibbs"

"Director"

The two men stared at each other for a moment before continuing.

"Care to explain why there were two kids sleeping on the floor of the office when I came to work this morning?" questioned the dark-skinned man.

"I put them in protective custody after they witnessed an attack then were attacked themselves," answered Gibbs immediately.

The director of NCIS leaned forward and placed his elbows on the handsome wooden desk. "So you believe they are in danger?"

Gibbs chose his next words carefully. "I think that the random attack that killed Sargent Andrew's was not random."

The director agreed with his thoughts. "If so, why would they attack the witnesses? If it was a prank gone wrong the offenders would have run, not stuck around. So why would there have been a second attack?"

"Well, if you signed the forms for the protective custody, I would go investigate and find out."

Director Vance rolled his eyes slightly and called his secretary, telling her to get the required forms. He looked back at Gibbs and gave a tiny nod. Recognising the signal for what it was – a dismissal – he quickly left the room and returned to the bullpen.

Upon his arrival, McGee, Tony and Ziva (who had finally showed up) stood up and went to the plasma in the middle of the room to give their reports.

"Our victim …" began Tony, before Gibbs made a shushing motion and gestured to the still sleeping teens.

DiNozzo nodded and began again in a quieter voice. "Our victim is Michael Andrews." Pressing a button on the remote, he brought up a picture. "A sergeant in the Marine corp, recently returned from Afghanistan, and was on a two week leave that finished on Monday. He's been staying at the Fireworks hotel while looking for a new apartment – he left the old one before his deployment. No suspicious activity on his bank statements. No wife, no kids, parents retired to Florida a couple of years ago. We're talking to his squad mates and leader later today." He turned to face Gibbs. "There's nothing out of the ordinary boss."

The team leader digested the information given. "Then why is he lying on a slab in autopsy?"

His team exchanged glances. "Wrong place, wrong time?" suggested McGee. Ziva nodded, agreeing with him. "We cannot rule out the possibility that the kids were the targets. They were attacked afterwards too."

Gibbs was about to reply when a different voice interrupted.

"We weren't the targets. "

The four field agents looking at the TV screen turned to see that it Sasuke who had spoken.

"Someone threw a rock which could have killed you if it hit…" said Tony.

"The second attack yes, we probably were the targets of it. However, we were on the diagonal to him," the teen gestured at the screen "so if we were the target the rock would not have been thrown in his direction."

Sasuke moved, looking for a more comfortable position without waking his friend who was still lying on his chest. The movement drew DiNozzo's attention to the position the two were in.

"Why is he lying on your chest?" he blurted out.

Sasuke blinked, and glanced down. "I make a better pillow then the floor, apparently." He shifted again. "Naruto, I know you're awake. Get off me."

The NCIS agents were surprised when the apparently fast asleep blond sat up grinning, Sasuke copying him a moment later.

"Morning guys" he said cheerfully. "Sasuke wouldn't have introduced us, so if you didn't know, I'm Naruto and my pillow is Sasuke."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "I'm not your pillow" he muttered.

"Yes you are" replied Naruto.

"Am not"

"Are too"

"Am not"

The argument would have continued on for longer if Tony hadn't interrupted.

"Are you two together?" he asked.

The question was enough to shock the teens into silence, if only for a second before they answered.

"What? No! Sasuke is like my brother! But I like girls!" sometime during his rant Naruto had started waving his arms around.

Sasuke watched for a moment before he turned to face the agents. "No."

"And we're friends and stuff, but..."

When Naruto's rant still hadn't ended, Sasuke rolled his eyes and shoved him in the shoulder.

"Shut up, idiot."

"I'm not an idiot!"

"Ye…"

Whatever Sasuke was going to say was cut off when the shock wore off the group from NCIS.

"Back on topic. You said you weren't the targets, and I agree with you, to a point."

"To a point?" Questioned Sasuke, and Gibbs could see his trying to figure out what he meant by that statement. But he was having trouble reading the emotions. 'Kid has a hell of a poker face' thought Gibbs privately.

Out loud, he answered the question. "You're right about the first stone. But what about the second?"

He shrugged, but it was Naruto who answered.

"Sasuke looked out the window, looking for whoever threw the stone. He didn't see anything, but they didn't know that. Maybe whoever did it was just trying to clean up anyone who could identify them?"

Gibbs, and the rest of the team were shocked, but they hid it well. Deciding to change the topic, Gibbs asked the pair about their teacher.

"We're all staying at the Clockwork Motel – I told you last night – and he's either there or looking for us. Sakura should be with him."

"Sakura?"

"Our friend. Kakashi-sensei took the three of us to DC for a couple of weeks. We've been spending a lot of time learning history."

Naruto didn't seem too happy about it, Gibbs noted.

"Don't like history?" Tony asked the teens.

Before either of them could reply, Ziva asked a different question, one that had been bothering Gibbs as well.

"Sensei? Are you Japanese?"

"No. Kakashi was teaching us the language and we started calling him that. Our friends started doing it, and it became a bit of a tradition," Sasuke explained.

Ziva nodded, accepting the explanation. It sounded feasible, but in Gibbs's opinion the question was too readily answered. However, whether it was the truth or not, the team had work to do.

"DiNozzo, David, go meet Sergeant Andrew's squad. McGee, look for friends outside the corp." The three agents nodded, and went to their desks.

"Sasuke, Naruto." The two teens looked up. "Come with me." They glanced at each other, and a moment later they scrambled to their feet. At least, Naruto did, while Sasuke stood up gracefully. The both stretched their muscles a bit, before they followed Gibbs towards the elevator.

"Where are we going?" asked Naruto while they waited.

"Clockwork Motel – you're going to need some clothes. And I want to talk to this teacher of yours."

The elevator arrived then, and the teenagers followed Gibbs inside. He had his back to them, so it was no surprise when the agent missed the look between the pair.

* * *

><p>Sasuke woke up the next morning with a soft, if flat pillow under his head and something heavy on his chest. He could also hear muffled voices nearby. For a minute, he was feeling disorientated until the memories of last night came flooding back. Now fully aware of where he was, Sasuke concentrated on the voices that he now recognised as that of the NCIS team.<p>

A voice he couldn't put a name to was speaking, and from the sounds of it their targets personal history. It was pretty much the information they had been given as part of the mission briefing.

"We cannot rule out the possibility that the kids were the targets. They were attacked afterwards too."

After hearing that, Sasuke decided it was time that he would 'wake up' and interjected his own opinion.

"We weren't the targets," he said calmly. Now that his eyes were open, Sasuke could see that 4 of the agents on the team were standing around a screen which was displaying a picture of the dead marine.

"Someone threw a rock which could have killed you if it hit…" a male agent Sasuke didn't know the name of pointed out before he trailed off.

Sasuke sighed inwardly and explained exactly why they weren't the target, of the first attack at least. Sometime during his explanation, Naruto sent a tiny jolt of chakra into him, to let Sasuke know he was awake. Sasuke flinched slightly out of reflex, but disguised the movement as looking for a more comfortable position. Unfortunately for him, one of the agents caught the movement.

"Why is he lying on your chest?" asked the curious agent.

'That was unexpected' thought Sasuke, and he had to think about what to answer.

"I make a better pillow then the floor, apparently." Although he couldn't see Naruto's face, Sasuke knew that if he could, he would be grinning. Speaking of Naruto, it was time he 'woke up.'

Naruto sat up quickly after prodding from Sasuke, and both shinobi smirked inwardly at the surprised expressions on their faces. It was easy for them to tell who were the most experienced at hiding their emotions – Gibbs and the woman, as they were the ones to cover their surprise first.

Their moment of humour was short lived however, when the middle aged man questioned their relationship. Immediately, Naruto started spluttering, denying the accusation. He was cut off by Sasuke, which started an argument between the two shinobi with the NCIS personnel almost forgotten about, until Gibbs broke up their argument.

The grey haired man spoke in a tone that showed he was used to giving commands and having them followed. The shinobi pair exchanged a glance, and a second later an agreement was reached. The teens stood up and followed the agent to the elevator. Naruto asked the question that was on both their minds, and it was answered immediately.

"Clockwork Motel – you're going to need some clothes. And I want to talk to this teacher of yours," He said.

Inwardly, Naruto sighed, relieved with the first part of the answer as they would both need more supplies, but the second part worried him slightly. He had been nervous when the agents had questioned them before about Kakashi-sensei – obviously they didn't have the same sort of classes or the same teaching practices here.

They had agreed their cover story was going to be a few kids on an excursion to Washington DC, escorted by their teacher. The night before Naruto had sent a toad summon to Kakashi and Sakura explaining their story, he just hoped they could pull it off. Naruto hated lying to people, even if it was part of his job as a shinobi.

He looked over at Sasuke, and the two entered a silent conversation. By the time the elevator doors dinged open on the ground floor they had reached an agreement – they would act like themselves. Naruto would do most of the talking, and Sasuke would observe.

Now that they had a plan, Naruto was a bit more confident. Granted, it wasn't much of a plan, but they didn't have time for a complicated strategy.

On their way to the car, Naruto flashed Sasuke a smile, and sped up to walk next to Gibbs. Stretching his arms behind his head, Naruto smiled at the NCIS agent.

"So, what do you guys do exactly?"

Following behind, Sasuke allowed himself a small smirk. Showtime.

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><p><strong>AN: I think this is probably the fastest update I have done on this story :) And it's long. But I don't think it's very good, since I've been writing at night, so I'm tired.**

**In other news, I don't know if you would have got a chapter notification or not, but I changed their ages. Both Naruto and Sasuke are now 15. That's the only thing changed though. **

**Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and thank you to everyone who reviewed, favourited, alerted and read this story :) You guys rock!**


	8. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or NCIS.**

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><p>"Kakashi-sensei"<p>

"Yes Sakura?"

"Have you heard from Naruto or Sasuke?" asked his pink-haired student, worry evident in her voice.

Kakashi Hatake glanced up from his book to see the girl was sitting cross legged on her bed. "Naruto sent a toad telling us about what happened, and Pakkun too."

Sakura bit her lip. "I know. But what if something happened? They're with the police, and we're undercover."

Kakashi sat up and looked at his only female student. "They'll be fine. They both know how to act undercover, and they can both think on their feet. She looked down, picking at the cover on the bed.

"I know" she sighed, and lay down, staring at the ceiling. Kakashi smiled at her – not that she could see with the mask, and went back to his book. They sat in silence for a couple minutes, the only sound being the turning of pages.

The quiet was broken a minute later by a knock on the door. Instantly, Sakura jumped up with a kunai positioned in her hand. Kakashi could sense two familiar chakra signatures outside, and one unfamiliar one.

"Doors unlocked," he called, motioning to his student to hide her weapon. She did, and it wasn't a second later when the door opened and a grey-haired man entered, followed by his remaining two students.

Kakashi pretended to ignore the older man, and studied his charges instead. Sasuke had the usual unreadable look on his face, while Naruto's had its customary smile. No doubt it was from seeing his team again. However out of the corner of his eye, he examined the man.

He fitted the description given to him by Pakkun of Special Agent Gibbs, although without the NCIS jacket now. There was a gun strapped to his hip, and when he stepped forward Kakashi saw a holster outlined through his pants on his ankle. Two guns then. The man was subtlety looking around the room, and his hand rested near his holster. Not close enough that he appeared to be drawing it, but it wouldn't take him long. Trained. He introduced himself. So he was right, this was Special Agent Gibbs.

"Why are two of my students with you?" inquired Kakashi, though he knew the answer.

Gibbs didn't waste time and was straight to the point. "They witnessed an attack on a US Marine, before they were attacked in a similar manner to the victim."

Playing the part of concerned teacher, Kakashi immediately turned his attention to his students. They appeared bored.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"We're fine Sensei!" chirped Naruto happily.

Kakashi nodded, and looked down at his book before addressing the NCIS agent.

"Can I take them home?" He doubted it, given what Pakkun had told him about protective custody.

So he wasn't surprised when Agent Gibbs replied in the negative, explaining about danger.

Inwardly Kakashi snorted, Naruto and Sasuke would be in more danger with NCIS then with the shinobi -although Gibbs didn't know that.

Kakashi sighed audibly. "Naruto, Sasuke, go collect your stuff." It couldn't be helped, unless they wanted to cast suspicion on themselves although Kakashi had a feeling that they were already on Gibbs's suspect list.

"They were planning to clean up as well," Gibbs injected.

Kakashi nodded. "Sasuke, use the bathroom in here, it will be quicker."

The dark haired boy nodded, and Naruto gave a mock salute before they both disappeared out the door.

Kakashi gestured to the lounge that was resting against the wall. "Sit down; they'll take a little while."

Gibbs nodded, and took the offered seat.

"I was hoping that you could answer some questions for me" he said.

"What do you want to know?" replied Kakashi cautiously, though outwardly his tone didn't change. His expression, of course was hidden by the mask.

Before he could start, Gibbs's head turned to the right, and Kakashi realised he was looking at Sakura, who had been silent up to this point.

"Ah… this is my third student, Sakura."

"Pleased to meet you" said the medic with a smile. Gibbs nodded in reply.

Sakura began searching around in her bag. "I'm going to give these to Naruto and Sasuke… I meant to give them to them yesterday" she explained, holding up two scrolls. Kakashi nodded and Sakura left the room, closing the door quietly behind her.

Gibbs once again turned to face Kakashi, and wasting no more time he started his questioning.

"What can you tell me about Naruto and Sasuke?"

Kakashi considered the question for a minute. Gibbs's was an investigator, so he probably wanted to find out if the teens were involved in the attack… or he could want to know if there was a reason they themselves were attacked. Either way, there was no reason to give anything away. Or to not find out more about possible enemies…

"I'm afraid I don't understand the question" Kakashi said with a smile.

"What sort of people are they?" Gibbs elaborated. So that could either mean 'are they involved in anything illegal' or 'have they mixed with the wrong people who hold a grudge?'

The technical answer to both was yes, for as shinobi they had make plenty of enemies – and Sasuke going to Orochimaru didn't help.

"They are hardworking, dedicated students, although both are quite headstrong and they will often fight over nothing. Naruto and Sasuke are pretty much complete opposites, light and dark. They make an almost flawless team when working together."

Gibbs blinked, and Kakashi smirked inwardly. He did realise that he contradicted himself; he just wondered what Gibbs would think of that.

A moment later, it appeared that the NCIS agent had finished processing that information, and had his next question. 'Bet it's about last night' Kakashi thought idly.

"Why weren't you looking for them when they didn't return?"

'Quite predictably isn't he…' thought Kakashi. To Gibbs, he replied;

"I wasn't aware they were missing… Sakura was tired, so I brought her back here. The boys should have returned half an hour later at the most – I thought they were just out early this morning. We had nothing planned today."

That was an outright lie. Luckily Kakashi was an expert liar, for he could see Gibbs watching him closely.

"And you weren't worried about leaving two teenage boys out alone at night?" Kakashi could hear an undertone of anger in this question. Obviously he felt it was irresponsible.

"If you're implying that they were in danger of being attacked, I would be more worried out their attacker."

This was not the answer Gibbs was expecting, and the surprise showed on his face. Kakashi continued before he could say anything.

"I'm assuming you've never seen them fight… both of them can hit a target with deadly precision blindfolded. Not that it would come to that – they would have to catch them first."

Kakashi had a strong suspicion that if Gibbs was anyone else he would be gaping like a fish.

He was about to reply when the door opened and Sasuke returned, carrying a backpack.

"You got everything?"

Sasuke nodded, and Kakashi waved him through to the bathroom. As soon as the door shut behind him Gibbs asked his next question, and the interview continued.

"Where do you live?"

Now that one might be hard to answer without giving too much away. "We live in a small town, quite a way away from here." Or not, that was fairly simple, as long as he didn't get asked too many questions about it.

"So you left them at night in an alien environment?"

Kakashi sighed inwardly. This was going to take a while.

* * *

><p>Gibbs tightened his grip of the steering wheel, his knuckles were white from gripping it so hard but he needed to calm down.<p>

How could someone be so unconcerned about the welfare of children placed under their care? To leave them alone at night in a foreign city, relying on accuracy with weapons (which they weren't carrying) and _speed _to keep them safe… it was…

His internal ranting was cut off when Naruto spoke up.

"What did Kakashi say to you to get you so angry?" he asked.

A bit surprised that he'd noticed at all, Gibbs replied with a question of his own.

"What makes you think he said anything at all?" He asked, tilting his head to the side to see the blond.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "You weren't angry before you talked to him. You were afterwards."

Gibbs focused his attention back on the road. Surely there was no harm in telling them. "He left you alone at night."

"So?"

"That doesn't bother you? You could have been robbed, attacked… anything!" Gibbs half yelled, his grip tightening even more on the steering wheel. He glanced down, and forced himself to loosen his death grip before he damaged the wheel.

"If he told you that I assumed he told you that it would be hard to take us down?" Sasuke's voice was calm as usual.

"He said you can hit a target blindfolded"

Naruto tilted his head to the side. "We can. And we don't just fight with weapons either."

That just seemed too impossible for Gibbs to believe. They were 15, they didn't even have a reason to learn that. That was something else… why did they try?

"So why were you practicing blindfolded?"

Sasuke sighed, but Naruto was again the one who answered. "Kakashi decided that since Sasuke's style places an emphasis on the eyes, he should learn to fight without them. So we all did it."

Hatake taught them to fight? And how had Sasuke developed his own style?

"Well it's not really my style, it's my families," Sasuke added.

That explained one question then, but raised several others. He decided to put those to the back of his mind for a minute and went with his original question.

"So Hatake is your instructor as well as your teacher?"

"Yeah" replied Naruto, although he seemed slightly confused about where the conversation was going.

If this was normal for them, Gibbs wondered what their school was like. "How common is that?"

It was Sasuke who answered. "Very. Self-defence is part of the curriculum."

What kind of school had _fighting _as part of the required subjects? And how young had they started, to be as good as they supposably were at 15… Gibbs had a bad feeling that he wouldn't like the answer.

"When did you start school?" he asked with a growing feeling of unease.

"5."

Well he was right about not liking the answer. Since his hands were once again clenched tightly around the steering wheel, he decided it was time to change the subject. Slightly.

"Are you Hatake's only students?"

Gibbs had to admit he was curious about the answer. Most teachers wouldn't take just three students on a trip.

It was Naruto who answered. "Yes. And before you ask, our school starts at 5 in a conventional classroom – I think there were 27 kids in our class. We graduate from there at 12, then we're split into groups of three. Each group has a different teacher."

'Well that's different' thought Gibbs. He wondered where the school got all the teachers from, but what was more important…

"What does he teach you, apart from fighting?"

"Language – a couple of them, maths, about trees and plants…"

"Botany" Injected Sasuke.

"Yeah that, as well as history and 'life skills'" finished Naruto.

"Life skills?" asked Gibbs. It all seemed fairly standard even if it was in such a small group.

"Yeah, something else our school does. We do work for people, like painting fences, washing dogs, and they pay us. Our lessons tend to not give us any time to work, so this way we get life skills and can earn money."

That's one way to look at it. At least they were getting paid for their work. Although it might not be much…

"How much do you earn?"

Naruto shrugged. He seemed to be doing most of the talking today. "Enough that I can support myself."

This raised a whole new set of questions, but they had arrived at the Navy Yard.

Gibbs showed his ID at the gates, and they were waved through. The remainder of the drive was spent in silence, and a few minutes later they were getting out the car and walking into the NCIS building.

Once they were through security and in the elevator, Gibbs turned his attention to the case. They needed to solve it, but right now their only lead was these two kids. He needed coffee. Already he could tell that this was going to be a tough case.

* * *

><p>Sasuke closed the door behind him and sighed. Naruto, who had flopped onto his bed, agreed with the sentiment.<p>

"We're going to have to change our story a bit" the blond informed his teammate. His only response was a grunt of agreement as the dark haired shinobi sat on his own bed.

Naruto glanced around. There was nothing for them to pack, as shinobi life had taught them to always be prepared and ready to move. There was silence for a moment longer.

"How about we stick to the truth?" suggested Naruto. The 'leaving out the shinobi part' went unsaid.

"It might be for the best" agreed Sasuke reluctantly. "We'll tell Sakura when she gets here."

There was a knock on the door and Sakura opened it. "Perfect timing" called Naruto cheerfully as a way of greeting his pink haired teammate. Sakura rolled her eyes and threw a scroll at his head. Naruto caught it easily, grinning, and turned it over in his hand.

"What is it?" he asked, as Sakura tossed an identical scroll to Sasuke.

"Emergency medical supplies" she said. "Not much, but more than what is in your first aid kits."

"Thanks Sakura" Naruto said, tucking the scroll into his pack. Sasuke nodded, and put his own scroll away.

Sakura sighed and sat down on the lounge. "So what's the plan?"

"We were going to pretend that Sensei was taking us on a visit to the city" replied Naruto.

"But?" prompted Sakura when he didn't continue.

"Change of plan" said Sasuke shortly. "We're telling them our actual school system, without the shinobi part."

Sakura nodded. "Because Agent Gibbs would suspect you of not telling the truth?"

"Yeah" sighed Naruto. "

They sat in silence for a minute until Naruto got up and went to the bathroom. He heard Sasuke say something to Sakura, and her reply before the door shut with a dull thud.

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><p><strong>AN: So apparently Kakashi's name is now spelt Kakshi - every time I wrote it in this chapter I spelt it like that. **

**Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favourited, alerted, and read this story. We are now at 60 reviews, thank you :) It really makes my day when I open my inbox and there are a heap of notifications about this story :)**


	9. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or NCIS**

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><p>"McGee" called Gibbs as he strode into the bullpen with the teenagers close behind.<p>

McGee looked up from his computer screen. "Yes Boss?"

"What have you found?" questioned Gibbs. He wanted to get the teens out of the room, but he needed to know what McGee found first.

The younger agent sighed. "I talked to his parents in Florida; they said he hadn't talked to them since he joined the marines. From what I can tell, he had no friends outside the Marines."

Gibbs nodded. "Take these two on a tour of the building," he ordered. He turned to the witnesses. "You can leave your bags here."

Naruto and Sasuke nodded, and put their backpacks where they had slept.

McGee got up and started explaining the different parts of the room. Gibbs watched them for a moment, and saw that both boys were listening attentively.

As soon as they were gone, Gibbs turned to his remaining two agents. "What about his squad?"

Ziva replied. "I talked to his squad commander, he said that Andrews was a bit of a loner, not particularly close to anyone but had no enemies. He also said that he started acting a bit strange about 3 weeks before the end of their last tour."

Gibbs digested that information. "Did he know why?"

Ziva shook her head. "He did not know. All of Andrews's squad mates said the same thing. None of them had ever heard him talk about his personal life. It was his first tour of duty."

"How did your conversation with the teacher go boss?" asked DiNozzo.

This brought Gibbs's anger back to the surface.

"Kakashi Hatake, 29. He has taught the three of them since they were 12."

He was about to go on when Tony interrupted. "Three? I thought there were two…"

Gibbs glared, but answered his question. "Yes, three. Naruto and Sasuke mentioned her earlier, weren't you listening?"

"Oh yeah…" said Tony quietly. Gibbs picked up where he left off.

"Hatake's students evidently know him on a personal level. He was sharing a room with the girl."

DiNozzo interrupted again. "Isn't that a bit… unorthodox?" he asked hesitantly.

"I said that. He said that she had to choice between sharing with him or Naruto and Sasuke. Hatake said that she did not want to put up with their fighting for two weeks. They were in separate beds, and I don't think he would do anything, but I don't like Hatake."

"A gut feeling?" questioned Tony.

Gibbs nodded. "He was wearing a mask, and had an eye patch covering his left eye. The only part of his face you could see was his right eye and a bit around it. Said he lost it in an accident years ago, a cave collapsed on him and two friends. One of his friends of killed, the other escaped without injury."

Both Tony and Ziva looked shocked, but neither commented, and Gibbs continued.

"Both Mother and Father died when he was young, and his guardian when he was in his teens. He has lived alone since then. Hatake refused to go into any details about his past."

"Suspicious" remarked DiNozzo.

"Or he just doesn't want to talk about painful times with a stranger" retorted Ziva quickly.

Sensing an argument, Gibbs decided to intercede. "Eh, could be both," he said.

"Or it could be both" agreed DiNozzo. He changed the subject. "Did you find out anything about the kids? Na-uh-too and Sah-su-ke?"

Gibbs rolled his eyes. "Naruto and Sasuke. He said they were both good students, although neither particularly likes school. He claimed that all three of his students are talented in martial arts – or 'self-defence.' "

"Did he say how talented?" Ziva inquired slowly, still processing the information.

"The example he used was that they could hit a target blindfolded."

Ziva was quick to dispute the claim. "Impossible. It would take years of training to achieve enough skill with a weapon to even attempt it, and even then it would require intensive training to be able to create a… image, if you will of the area around you to know where the target is."

Gibbs nodded. "They start at 5."

Ziva sighed. "Even so, it would take a lot of practice and skill. There is only one person I know who can do that, and he would be in his late 50's now."

"If they're so good with weapons, then could they have had something to do with the attack?" asked Tony.

"Possibly. I also talked to Sakura. She's a pretty girl, with bright pink hair."

"Pink?" Tony could not believe it.

Gibbs glared at the younger agent and continued. "Hatake said she was better at bookwork than the boys. When I talked to her, she mentioned that the boys are quite reckless and she often worries about them."

Before Gibbs could elaborate further, the ringing of his phone cut him off.

"Gibbs" he answered shortly.

Ducky had called. "I need you in autopsy" was all that the usually talkative medical examiner said.

"Be right there," replied Gibbs, before he disconnected and shut his mobile with a snap.

"Going to autopsy," he announced to his team before striding off to the elevators. Gibbs pressed the button and sighed. Tony had raised a valid point, Hatake and Sakura could have orchestrated the attack with Naruto and Sasuke as their accomplices. However, he couldn't see Sakura participating in a murder. Naruto was also unlikely in his mind, and although he wasn't as sure about Sasuke Gibbs was reasonably sure he wouldn't. Hatake on the other hand… he stuck Gibbs as someone who could and had killed.

He was so deep in thought that he barely noticed when he stepped into the elevator, and was only jolted out of his contemplations by the sound of voices. Shaking his head slightly to clear it, Gibbs strode out of the open doors and into the brightly lit, subterranean autopsy room.

Gibbs was mildly surprised to see McGee there with Naruto and Sasuke, but he ignored them for a moment and turned to Ducky.

"You needed to see me Duck?"

The British doctor looked up from the cadaver he was examining with Palmer's help.

"Ah, yes, it's good to see that you arrived so quickly Jethro. I have not yet finished my autopsy of this poor man, but I can tell you one thing."

"To the point Duck."

Ducky smiled in a slight apology before it faded from his face. "The injuries sustained by Sargent Andrews did not kill him."

Gibbs was shocked to say the least. "What?"

The doctor elaborated. "Well, to be more precise, they should not have killed him. His body suffered a number of lacerations from the glass, some deeper than others. In addition, he suffered blunt force trauma to the head, from the rock. My initial assumption was that this was what killed him, and indeed, it was enough that he would have had brain damage had he lived, but my thoughts were incorrect. A blow of this kind should not have been fatal."

"So how did he die?"

"I don't know. It appears that it did, in fact kill him. The mystery here is that the blow was not a fatal one, and since the lacerations are all simply superficial his death was not the result of that either. I've sent samples to Abby for analysis, but I must admit that this has me stumped. " As well hidden as it was, Gibbs could detect the slight undertone of frustration in the doctor's voice. Even so, Gibbs could tell that the case had sparked his interest. After his long career, not much was new to the medical examiner.

"You think he might have been poisoned?" asked the field agent.

"There's no sign of it in any of his organs. You will have no talk to Ms Sciuto to find out more on that. Now I have to finish the autopsy." With that, he turned his full attention back the marine on the table.

"Call me if you have anything Duck" said Gibbs as he turned to leave, beckoning to McGee as he did so.

When they were standing in the elevator, Gibbs turned to McGee.

"Have you finished the tour?" he asked.

McGee nodded. "Yes boss. Autopsy was the last stop."

"Go back to your desk, and pull the sergeant's phone records," Gibbs ordered the younger agent. Turning to the teenagers he asked; "Do you mind sitting in the bullpen for a bit?"

"It's fine" replied Naruto, while Sasuke grunted.

"He said that it's fine" translated Naruto.

Gibbs glanced at Sasuke, who only rolled his eyes at his friend. The senior agent transferred his gaze to his junior agent who wasn't at all surprised at this exchange. Evidently, this was a normal occurrence between the two. His suspicions were confirmed when McGee leaned over and whispered;

"They've been doing this all morning."

Sasuke overheard them and glanced over his shoulder. "He does it all the time. Normally it's to annoy me, but he's usually correct."

"He can understand that?" Gibbs asked in confirmation.

"Hey! 'He' is right here!" protested Naruto. "And once you get used to it, Sasukeese is easy to understand."

Sasuke raised his eyebrows at his blond companion. "Sasukeese?" It was something that Gibbs was wondering too.

"Well it was either that or Uchihaese, but from what I've seen you all have some sort of individual language although you can understand each other. Besides, that's just strange," declared Naruto in complete seriousness.

"What's strange is that you have named the fact that I don't always talk," retorted Sasuke while rolling his eyes.

"No it's not," insisted Naruto.

"Hn"

Naruto rolled his eyes but followed his companion in falling into silence.

Gibbs, on the other hand was silent for a different reason. The conversation itself had seemed innocent enough, if a little strange. The only real point of interest was the mention of the Uchihas. It was something he would have to think about later, thought Gibbs as the elevator arrived at Abby's Lab. He pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind, and by the time he entered the forensic techs' lair his mind was focused on nothing but the matter at hand.

It wasn't until later that he would realise that neither of the teenagers had shown any sign of discomfort despite witnessing part of an autopsy.

* * *

><p>"Naruto" muttered Sasuke, quiet enough that the agents around them wouldn't hear.<p>

"Yeah" replied Naruto, just as quiet.

"The marine." It was all he needed to say for the hyperactive shinobi to focus on his train of thought.

"Was it poison?" asked Naruto. He knew that Sasuke had removed a senbon, which he had later given to Sakura to analyse, but she hadn't been able to tell them anything yet.

"I don't know," admitted Sasuke. "It wasn't on a pressure point, so on its own it didn't kill him. The medical examiner is right about the injuries too."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. I'm no medic" (Sasuke snorted, and Naruto glared at him before continuing) "but even I could tell that it wasn't a fatal wound - not for a shinobi at least."

Sasuke nodded, and stretched his back. They were again sitting on the floor while the agent worked around them.

"I want to spar" complained Naruto, who had been watching the agents work.

"Hn" agreed Sasuke.

Naruto grinned. "I wonder if they would let us. Gibbs didn't seem too convinced when we told him about our abilities.

They had been talking louder than they were earlier, and the female agent whom the shinobi thought was called Ziva had overheard.

"I think we could arrange something," she said. "I admit, I am quite curious about your abilities."

Naruto grinned. "Awesome! Plus, Sasuke and I are really good! We'll show you later, if you can arrange a spar."

From across the room, the middle-aged man joined the conversation. "Spar? You're not fencing…" he said.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Tch. Idiot" he muttered under his breath before raising his voice to address the agent.

"A spar is a practice fight, to improve our skills."

DiNozzo tried (and failed) to cover his ignorance. "Oh, that kind of spar! Why didn't you say so?"

Sasuke glared for a moment before ignoring the man completely.

Ziva glanced over at her companion before she addressed the shinobi again.

"Whatever it may be, I'm sure we can arrange something."

Naruto cheered. "Yay! Thank you Agent David!"

She smiled and turned back to her computer. In turn, Naruto turned to face Sasuke again.

"This should be fun," Naruto whispered, grinning. Sasuke smirked in response.

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><p><strong>AN:** **Merry Christmas! If you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a great day ^.^**

**I wanted to get this out by Christmas day, and now here I am at half-past one in the morning**. **I think I'm going to go to bed now o.O Tiredness does not agree with me. This is labeled as 'OMG HE SHOULD BE DEAD' in my document manager, and the word document is 'Rawr.' Night :D  
><strong>


	10. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or NCIS**

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><p>"Gibbs!" called Ziva, as soon as the senior agent entered the bullpen.<p>

Gibbs didn't reply but he walked over to the former Mossard officer desk. Ziva glanced to the side where the witnesses were sitting before she started talking.

"Naruto and Sasuke have asked if it would be possible for them to spar," she explained quietly.

Gibbs glanced over at the teens. At first glance, they didn't appear to be listening, but upon looking closer Gibbs saw that they were following the conversation carefully.

He turned back to his agent. "I can see if they can use the training room. Outside might be too dangerous."

Ziva nodded. "That's what I was thinking," she said.

Gibbs glanced at the teens, deep in thought. They had abandoned all pretence of not listening, and he saw both were looking at him. Gibbs studied each for a moment. In Naruto's eyes, he saw nothing but eagerness; the senior agent had already observed that the kid was hyperactive. However, when his gaze flicked to Sasuke he saw nothing. The kid's dark eyes were watching everything around him, but for all his experience Gibbs could see no emotions. It worried him, if Sasuke didn't care than he could seriously hurt someone. It would almost be enough to convince Gibbs it would be if they did not fight, but for the fact that Sasuke had already demonstrated that he did, indeed care about his friend.

Having come to the conclusion that the witnesses would not be a danger to each other (Or at least, not a serious one, as a spar between experienced fighters would no doubt result in a few bruises at least), Gibbs moved on to the next issue. For visitors to use the training room would require express permission from the director. This didn't worry Gibbs too much, he was sure that Vance would allow it. Especially as an ex fighter himself, he was likely to be interested in their abilities also.

Although Gibbs was certain the teens wouldn't hurt each other on purpose, there was always the possibility that things would get out of hand, especially with teenage boys. So someone would have to watch over the spar. Gibbs had years of experience with teenagers, but he didn't need it to know that they would not be happy with that safety measure. Speaking of safety measures…

"Do a set of rules for spars?" he asked the waiting boys.

Naruto shrugged. "Different for different people. Me and Sasuke"

"Sasuke and I" corrected Ziva absently.

"Sorry – Sasuke and I have less rules than most, but only because we know each other so well." Naruto explained.

Sasuke picked up where Naruto left off. "The rules we normally follow are making the seal of confrontation at the start and reconciliation at the end."

Knowing Ziva would ask the question, Gibbs kept silent and sure enough the former Israeli spoke up a moment later.

"I've never heard of them. What do they mean?" questioned Ziva.

"Seal of Confrontation means 'I want to fight you'. Seal of Reconciliation means 'we're still friends' " recited Sasuke in a monotone, indication he was repeating something he memorised. Naruto added his own explanation on the end though.

"I don't think most people use them after academy," he laughed. "But Kakashi-sensei thought it would be a good idea for us, since we really didn't like each other after we graduated."

Gibbs and Ziva exchanged a glance. "So why were you put in the same group?" asked Gibbs.

Sasuke snorted. "Balance."

The agents waited for him to elaborate, but when he didn't Ziva prodded for more information. Naruto was the one to give it to them.

"Sasuke was top of the class, I was bottom and Sakura was the top girl. In terms of personality, Sasuke is quiet, serious and practical, Sakura is smart, polite and organised and I'm loud, unpredictable and creative."

Internally, Gibbs raised an eyebrow. From the kid's description, the three were very different. For a moment, he wondered how they worked before thinking of his own team. The situation was different but he could see a few parallels. It was time to get back on topic though. They didn't seem keen to seriously hurt each other, and Gibbs had to admit that he was curious about them. He could always step in if the spar got serious.

Externally, Gibbs nodded at the explanation. "I'll talk to the director about arranging a spar." He said. It was surprising, to see the effect that had on the boys, and it underlined their differences.

Naruto cheered and thanked him, while Sasuke merely said 'hn'. Nevertheless, Gibbs caught a flash of anticipation in his eyes before they became unreadable once more.

Gibbs turned and walked towards the director's office. He had intended to look into the marine's background himself, but this wouldn't take long.

It didn't take long to ascend the silver stairs and soon Gibbs was striding through the doors of the director's office.

Vance looked up to see who entered. "I'll call you back," he said into the phone as soon as he saw Gibbs. After hanging up the phone, Vance leaned back and laced his fingers together.

"What do you want Gibbs?"

Gibbs crossed the room to stand in front of the large desk. "Naruto and Sasuke."

"The witnesses?" queried the director. "What about them?"

"They've asked to spar."

Vance considered that for a moment. "You want to use the training room."

Gibbs nodded once.

"Hm. To tell you the truth Gibbs, I'm surprised you asked," commented the director as he thought it over.

"So can they use it?" asked Gibbs, inclining his head to acknowledge the comment.

Director Vance leaned forward and rested his elbows on the desk. "I'll allow it," he said. "As long as you ensure no one gets hurt."

Gibbs smirked and walked to the door. "Was going to do that anyway."

"I want to know what happens," he called before the door shut with a dull thud.

* * *

><p>"Did you hear that?" Naruto asked Sasuke excitedly.<p>

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Of course I did. We're going to have to be careful."

Naruto glared at his friend. "I'm not an idiot!" he complained.

"Could have fooled me," Sasuke muttered.

"Bastard" Naruto huffed, folding his arm.

Sasuke smirked. "Idiot"

Naruto glared at him. "Bastard"

"Dobe"

"Teme"

"You just called me 'bastard' twice."

"Shut up!"

Sasuke shook his head. "Back on topic. No chakra."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "No sharingan."

"That's covered by chakra," replied Sasuke.

"It will have to be strictly taijutsu," said Naruto. "And I don't think we should use our full speed."

Sasuke nodded. "Or strength," he added.

Naruto sighed. "We need our forehead protectors."

"In my bag. You?"

"Same" replied Naruto.

Before they could continue their conversation, the shinobi saw Agent Gibbs walking down the stairs leading to the director's office. They noticed that the two agents at their desks glanced up briefly when their boss entered the bullpen (as Agent McGee had called it) but quickly went back to work. For a minute Naruto wondered what they were actually doing on their computers, but think about it later. Instead, he concentrated on Gibbs.

"So can we spar?" asked Naruto, not bothering to keep the eagerness out of his voice.

Gibbs's lips twitched and Naruto thought he was smiling like Sasuke did sometimes (not much).

"Yeah," he said. "You can use the training room downstairs."

"Yay! Thank you!" Naruto cheered happily. The agents stopped typing at his exaggerated, but not completely faked exclamation. Naruto was glad for the chance to stretch (and beat up Sasuke a bit) and by his teammate's small movement; he could tell that Sasuke was glad for the chance too. On the other hand, he could be annoyed that Naruto yelled in his ear.

"When?" asked the dark haired shinobi. It was only after years of spending time with Sasuke that Naruto could detect the emotions in his voice, and right now Naruto could tell that he was excited.

Gibbs shifted his gaze to Sasuke. "This afternoon. Not many people will be there, since they'll all be working. Unlike some people." The last bit he directed towards his agents, and they both started typing again.

"The only condition is that someone needs to be in charge," Gibbs said.

Naruto tilted his head to show his confusion. "You mean like a proctor

Gibbs walked to his own desk and picked up a piece of paper, which he began writing on.

"I wonder what they're doing," whispered Naruto, looking at the working agents. He then resisted the urge to laugh at the expression on Sasuke's face.

"They're being quiet. Something you seem to be incapable of," replied Sasuke.

Naruto glared but didn't reply. He could be quiet... he just chose not to be. And he was going to prove it, believe it! He blinked in surprise at that. Where did he get 'believe it' from? Mentally he vowed to never say that out loud. He saw Sasuke raise an eyebrow at him, and Naruto stuck his tongue out in reply. Mission: Prove Sasuke Wrong commenced!

* * *

><p>"Ready?" called Naruto, anticipation leaking into his voice.<p>

Sasuke smirked. "Hn," he replied.

Naruto was standing with one hand forming the seal of confrontation, with Sasuke mirroring him. The shinobi were opposite each other on a slightly padded mat with Gibbs standing off to one side (he would be refereeing their spar).

"You're going down Sasuke!" called Naruto as he dropped the seal and fell into a fighting stance.

Sasuke snorted and dropped into his own stance. "I'm not going to lose."

There was a pause before Gibbs called "begin."

Naruto made the first move. He began by running forward and throwing a punch at Sasuke's chest. The other boy dodged it easily, but Naruto had been expecting it and rolled forward, just managing to dodge Sasuke's elbow aimed at his back.

The blond shinobi was back on his feet a second later, and wasted no time getting back into the fight. He aimed another punch, this time Sasuke blocked his fist and retaliated with a quick jab at his shoulder. Naruto ignored the light blow and aimed a high kick at Sasuke. The Uchiha smirked and grabbed his leg before pushing it to the side throwing Naruto off balance. Sasuke took advantage of his imbalance and aimed his own kick at the blond that he wasn't able to dodge.

The force of the kick caused Naruto to stumble before he regained his balance and turned to face Sasuke again. There was a moment's pause before the two shinobi simultaneously jumped at each other, trading a complicated series of blows. This time, Naruto managed to get the upper hand and a powerful punch sent Sasuke backwards.

Naruto took a quick breather, knowing the respite wouldn't last long. He was proved right seconds later when Sasuke launched a quick series of strikes that forced Naruto backwards and on the defensive. Sasuke ended his combo with a spinning kick that would have thrown Naruto onto the floor if not for his quick reflexes. Otherwise unaffected by the weak (for them) hit, Naruto retook his beginning stance. The shinobi had shifted since the start of the battle, and now Naruto faced Gibbs and the rest of his team who were standing further back while Sasuke had his back to them. Naruto could see the surprise on the faces of the agents and he sent them a grin before focusing on Sasuke once more.

"Tired already?" taunted Sasuke, a challenge in his dark eyes.

"Course not" replied Naruto. "Why, are you?"

Sasuke snorted. "Not going to beat me that easily Naruto."

Naruto jumped forward at the same time as Sasuke. Naruto threw a punch with his right hand at the same time as Sasuke. The result was a stalemate after they both attempted to catch the attacking fist.

"I think we proved our point," muttered Sasuke under his breath. Without moving his lips enough to be visible to the agents, Naruto replied.

"Yeah, I think we shocked them a bit."

"Might as well have some fun," Sasuke said with a smirk.

"What do you- Hey!" Sasuke cut off Naruto's question when he abruptly released his fist and stepped to the side, causing Naruto to fall forward. With no chance to stop his fall, Naruto used his forward momentum to his advantage, swinging his leg around to hit Sasuke in the shins. He then used the sideways pull to roll across the floor.

Naruto heard a shocked gasp and stopped his movement to see what happened. He was that Sasuke had attempted to jump at the last minute but mistimed it. To avoid landing on his face, Sasuke had summersaulted in mid-air and landed in a crouch from which he was already rising.

A quick glance at the agents was all Naruto needed to see that acrobatics that were considered basic at home were not normal here. His eyes met Sasuke's, and an unspoken message passed between them.

_'We need to finish this quickly.'_

The shinobi jumped toward each other again, but this time instead of attacking head on Sasuke managed to get behind Naruto and push him forward. Before the blond could recover, the Uchiha managed to grab his wrist and twist it behind his back. Naruto managed to use his other hand to avoid smashing his face into the floor, but by then Sasuke was pressing him into the ground.

Naruto sighed. In a normal spar, he would find a way out of this situation. But because this was anything but normal, he stayed put. 'I guess I can give Sasuke this point, but I'll win next time,' he thought to himself.

"Sasuke wins" said Gibbs. Naruto noticed he hadn't moved since the spar started, and was still standing on the edge of the padded mats.

Naruto felt the weight disappear from his back and rolled over. He lay on his back for a minute before pulling himself into a sitting position and studying the group. Sasuke had stood up already and was evidently waiting for Naruto. Gibbs had walked over and was standing beside the dark-haired shinobi while the other three agents were making their way over.

Sasuke glanced down at Naruto before reaching out a hand and pulling him to his feet.

"Thanks" said Naruto, and Sasuke nodded in recognition before he made his half of the reconciliation seal. Naruto grinned at him and completed the seal. For a second, he flashbacked to the first time they sparred, and they had both refused to make the seal. Iruka-sensei had made them in the end.

"Did you know it was the first time I saw you smile?" Naruto said suddenly. He knew Sasuke would understand what he referring to.

Sasuke shook his head. He was about to reply when they were interrupted by the arrival of the other agents.

"How did you do that?" Asked DiNozzo. "It was better than in the movies, and I've seen some pretty good fight scenes…"

Sasuke frowned. "Practice," he replied shortly.

Naruto added. "And it's more realistic than movies because we were actually fighting and it wasn't choreographed."

It was Ziva's turn to frown. "I had trouble seeing you move at times and I have trained all my life."

Naruto blinked in surprise. "You did?"

Meanwhile Sasuke mentally sighed and prepared himself, all the while thinking 'They sure do have a lot of questions…'

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><p><strong>AN: If it confused anyone, Naruto and Sasuke are talking about the boundaries while ****Gibbs and Vance are talking. And sorry if their spar seems short, I know nothing about fighting or writing fight scenes - on a related note, if you didn't want Sasuke to win I'm sorry, but I just think that in a taijutsu only fight like the one they had he would win.  
><strong>

**I can't believe this has over 100 reviews :D I haven't gotten even over 10 before!** **So thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favourited, alerted or just read this story. **


	11. Chapter 10

**I do not own Naruto or NCIS**

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><p>"How fast can you move?" pressed McGee.<p>

Gibbs also wanted answers. The teenagers had moved at incredible speeds, yet every move was perfectly controlled. If he didn't know better he would think they were dancing.

"I don't know," answered Sasuke.

"Sasuke is one of the fastest in our age group, but he does a lot of speed training. I do more endurance and strength," Naruto continued.

"How much time do you spend training?" asked DiNozzo incredulously. From the sound of it, they spent all their time working on their skills.

Naruto shrugged. "Depends. Sakura spends less time than we do because she wants to become a doctor. One of our friends spends most of his time practicing because he has a lot to prove."

"How much time a day do you practice?" asked Gibbs. There was something strange about seeing two normal looking teenagers fight like trained professionals who had practiced their whole lives.

Naruto glanced at Sasuke, who shrugged. "Some days more than others. At least an hour, but we've done nothing since we left. "

Gibbs frowned. How much work were they expected to put in to their skills? If they started at five, and put in over an hour a day… Then what they just saw would only be a fraction of what they could do, and there were no weapons involved in the spar.

"Who teaches you?" Ziva asked. Gibbs knew she was worrying about how good their teacher was if this was the students. He also knew that Hatake was the one who taught them, but he didn't look as though he was a fighter.

Sasuke glanced over at Gibbs. "Kakashi," he answered Ziva.

"How do you do all the flips and stuff?" asked DiNozzo. Gibbs thought he saw the faintest twitch from Sasuke, but Naruto answered.

"We do a lot of training. We learnt all that sort of stuff when we were younger," he explained.

"Why are you wearing those headbands?" questioned McGee curiously.

Naruto raised his arms and untied the knot at the back of his head and allowing the metal square at the front to fall into his hands. He held it out for inspection. "We get them when we graduate. It basically means that we trust each other."

On closer inspection, Gibbs saw that there was a carving resembling a highly stylised leaf on the plate. He also saw that it was worn, and covered in small scratches and dents. He frowned, but realised that Naruto was still talking. "We took them off when we came here, but last time we sparred without them, it got serious. "

Gibbs could see that his team was curious, and he had to admit he was too, but he also sensed that the teens didn't want to talk about it. Sasuke untied his own headband and slipped it into his pocket, Naruto following suit a moment later.

Naruto stretched his arms. "Any more questions?" he asked cheerfully.

"How many people are in your age group?" McGee asked.

Naruto looked upwards. "Hmm… there were 9 people who graduated in our year, then there are 3 people a year older but we spend a lot of time with them."

"So why did only you three come to DC?" asked Gibbs. It seemed strange to him that only three students would go on such a big trip if there were 12 around the same age.

"We work together sometime, but we're still separate groups," explained Sasuke. He ran a hand through his dark hair and sighed. "And before you ask, I don't know why we were the one who went. You would have to ask Kakashi."

"What did your friends think about you coming here?" Asked DiNozzo - It did seem that this was an important trip only a few people got the chance to go on.

Sasuke glared. "They're not my friends," he said icily.

Naruto however, grinned. "Stop being anti-social Sasuke! And everyone has been going on trips lately. We didn't have much of a chance to see anyone before we left but the group we did see said to have fun."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath but Gibbs didn't manage to catch it. Louder, he spoke to the group. "I'm not anti-social. I just don't like talking to people."

Naruto groaned. "I thought we got you past this whole 'no friends' thing!"

Sasuke turned to look at Naruto. "I never said I have no friends. I said I don't have many."

Naruto seemed to be about to reply, but before he had the chance someone shifted and reminded them of the presence of other people. He was interested in hearing how these two interacted, when it appeared they had forgotten the presence of the agents. What did Naruto mean when he mentioned 'getting Sasuke past having no friends'? Maybe it meant that the kid had trust issues, but the two teenagers seemed to trust each other. Now that he thought about it, it wasn't the sort of trust that's normally in teenage friendships. He frowned inwardly. It was much more reminiscent of the relationships he had seen between young soldiers during his time on the front lines -the absolute trust and the bond that come from depending on each other for survival. What had these kids gone through together that made them like that?

"Any more questions?" Naruto asked cheerfully, in a very different tone to a few seconds ago.

The NCIS team shook their heads, but Gibbs, who had practice in reading them, could see they had many more questions.

Instead, Ziva simply said, "I would be interested in sparring against you sometime."

The teenagers glanced at each other. After a few seconds, Sasuke spoke.

"If you have time now, I'll fight you."

Naruto grinned. "Aw, give her a chance Sasuke!" Gibbs figured he must have seen something in the dark-haired boy's expression.

"Fine, I'll fight blindfolded then." The concept didn't seem to bother him, however Gibbs saw a flash of an emotion he couldn't place on Ziva before she recovered and nodded. Sasuke removed his headband from his pocket and retied it on his head, this time with the metal plate covering his eyes. The NCIS group watched as he briefly brought his hands together in a strange position before dropping them back to his sides.

A second later, he turned and walked a few steps back, evidently waiting for everyone else to move off the mats, which they did a second later, leaving just himself and Ziva facing each other.

Gibbs watched this fight with interest. The kids did say they could fight with weapons blindfolded, but Ziva was highly trained and Sasuke had put himself at a huge disadvantage. However, although Gibbs was studying his stance, he could see no trace of imbalance or hesitancy. The kid's movements were almost identical to his movements when he wasn't blinded.

Sasuke bowed to Ziva, who was startled, but followed suit a moment later. When they had both returned to a standing position, Naruto called out, almost lazily, "begin!"

Sasuke didn't move immediately, and neither did Ziva. While Gibbs could see that Ziva was analysing the teenager for weaknesses in his stance and posture, he knew she wouldn't find any. However, Gibbs could only speculate as to what Sasuke was waiting for. He thought that the dark-haired teen wanted Ziva to make the first move but it would be foolish with his handicap to give away that advantage.

"Why aren't they moving?" McGee asked, confused.

Naruto grinned. "Sasuke is waiting for Agent David to move. He's working with a bigger handicap then what you think."

"Shouldn't he move first then?" asked DiNozzo. Gibbs agreed with him, it would make sense.

Naruto however, shook his head. "Sasuke only ever makes the first move in a fight when he knows his opponent wont, which rarely happens."

Over on the mats, Sasuke moved his hand. "He wants us to be quiet," Naruto informed the team.

Ziva chose that moment to move. Gibbs figured she had been listening to their conversation, trying to find a weak spot. He knew that she knew as well as him that Sasuke was working off sound and Gibbs could see that she was going to try to sneak up on the teenager. She had started moving closer to Sasuke without making a sound. On the other hand, Sasuke still had not moved or reacted in any way. Gibbs spared a quick glance at Naruto, only to see that the blonde was grinning.

Not wanting to miss something, he quickly looked back at the spar. He was just in time to see Ziva throw a punch. Sasuke didn't even hesitate; he caught her fist and twisted behind her. Gibbs didn't even need to look to know that McGee and DiNozzo were staring open-mouthed, and he couldn't blame them. Ziva had been trained extensively as a Mossard Officer, and to see her be caught so effortlessly by a kid wearing a blindfold was surprising.

However, Ziva wasn't going down that easily. She tossed her head back, obviously hoping to catch Sasuke in the face, but he was expecting it. He dropped into a crouch simultaneously dropping Ziva's arm. Sasuke used the agent's imbalance to his advantage and rolled to the side, pushing Ziva to the ground in the process. He rested one hand at the base of her neck with his knee on her back.

When Ziva didn't move, Naruto called the fight. "Sasuke wins!" he said. A few metres away, the Uchiha nodded and moved off the agent. He pulled his headband away from his eyes and blinked a couple of times, trying to adjust to the sudden light. Meanwhile, Ziva rolled over and sat up.

"Good match," she said with a slight smile as Gibbs began to walk over to the pair, followed by the rest of his team and Naruto. Sasuke bowed in reply from where he was kneeling and untied his headband, replacing it in his pocket. He looked up when the remainder of the group arrived.

"Dammit Naruto, did you really have to make me fight like that?" he groaned before making the same strange sign as before, when he first put on the blindfold. Gibbs noticed that it looked like the seal of confrontation the pair had made at the start was one-half this sign.

Naruto just grinned in reply to Sasuke. "What, the great Uchiha can fight with a little handicap?" Sasuke glared and muttered something, which Gibbs didn't hear, but Naruto evidently did because he laughed a little.

"You had to at least give her a chance," Naruto reproached his friend playfully while Sasuke just rolled his eyes and stood up, with Ziva already standing next to him.

"I do not think I ever had a chance," Ziva said, shaking her head. "You two are good."

Gibbs turned to Naruto. "Before, you said Sasuke had a bigger handicap then we thought. How important are his eyes?"

"I'm going to let Sasuke answer that," Naruto said, directing the team's attention to the quieter teen.

Sasuke sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Very, but it wasn't the blindfold. Normally, when we're working with them on we sense what's around us – but the extra handicap Naruto referred to was that I wasn't allowed to do that. Instead I had to listen."

Gibbs had to think about that statement for a moment. Sasuke hadn't reacted at all until Ziva had been about to hit him, and he was prepared to intercept that immediately.

"How soon did you pick up my movement?" Ziva asked.

"When you first moved," Sasuke informed her. "There was no point in reacting, you would just move quieter."

DiNozzo began to speak, but before he could say more than a couple of words, there was the sound of a window breaking. The group turned and the NCIS agents all drew their weapons, only to see a rock sitting on the ground amidst shattered glass.

The teenagers exchanged a glance and walked forward. Gibbs noticed the difference in their gait at the same time as the called for them to halt. Something had changed in them, it wasn't easily noticeable, but Gibbs had practice at reading body language. Naruto and Sasuke weren't messing around anymore – they were serious.

"Tony, McGee – get them back to the squad room. Ziva, you're with me." His team followed his commands without question. The two men had their firearms drawn and pointing at the otherwise empty training room, at the same time moving the teenagers toward the exit while Ziva (with her own weapon ready) followed Gibbs a few steps behind to where the rock was.

Crouching down to inspect it, Gibbs wasn't surprised to see the snake carved into the surface. What did surprise him, however, were the Asian characters carved beside it.

Security arrived while Gibbs crouched there, and within minutes, the rock was taken to Abby and the window repair shop called. Gibbs and Ziva returned to the squad room deep in thought.

There were many thoughts whirling around in Gibbs's head, but most of his attention was focused on one thing. When the rock someone had lifted and placed in the evidence bag, a message written in English became visible.

"They're not as innocent as they appear."

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><p><strong>AN: Wow, it's been over a month since I last updated... Sorry about that, but I just started the final year of the IB, so I have a lot of work to do. That, and my friends and I decided to do an Akatsuki cosplay****, so we're having sleepovers to try and make the cloaks which is taking up most of my weekends. **

**Also, this chapter is quite short, so I wrote a bit about Kakashi and Sakura that I don't think really fits into the story properly, so it's after this author's note.**

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed, favourited, added this story to communities and story alerts.**

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><p><strong>Enjoy!<strong>

Kakashi sighed and sat up when he heard Sakura turn over again. He knew she was worried about Naruto and Sasuke, but it was affecting her sleep. Normally, the only girl on Team 7 was quiet and still when she slept but tonight she was restless.

The Copy Nin looked out the window at the moon shining down on the city. There were no stars visible tonight, he guessed it was because of all the light outside, even at night. Kakashi could hear everything from tires screeching to cats howling.

Sakura turned over again in her sleep, and Kakashi brought his attention back inside. He sighed again, but there was nothing he could do to stop her from worrying. A sound at the window made him look over, but alert this time. The silhouette of a toad was visible, outlined against the lights of the city.

Silently, he stood up and allowed the toad entry. It handed him a nondescript scroll and sat down on the window ledge. He was thankful that the toad was quiet, normally Naruto's summons (for he recognised it) were very talkative.

Turning his attention back to the scroll in his hands, he fed chakra into the paper in for their usual code. If the pattern were wrong, the scroll would explode and its contents lost.

Now that the scroll was open, the unrolled it and read the hastily scribbled message. No emotions passed over his face (not that it mattered, for it was covered with its customary mask). When Kakashi had finished reading he simply rolled the scroll back up and replaced the lock.

"Tell them orders remain the same," he told the toad summon quietly, trying not to wake Sakura. The summon saluted him with one webbed foot and hopped back out the window.

"Sensei?" said Sakura in a sleepy voice. "What's happening?"

He glanced over. "Update from Naruto and Sasuke," he told her, and she was awake in an instant.

"Here, catch," he said, tossing her the scroll. She caught it easily, and after unsealing it read the short message written within.

Kakashi watched as she looked up from the scroll a minute later.

"We need to go home," she said, and burrowed under the blanket on her bed once again.

He didn't reply. He didn't need to, she was right and they both knew it.


	12. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or NCIS.**

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><p>Naruto and Sasuke obediently followed the two agents back to the elevator to the squad room, but they didn't let their guard down. Orochimaru had just launched another attack, with the possible purpose of separating the agents. Then again, he could just be playing the mind games he was so fond of using.<p>

As it turned out, the shinobi and the agents made it back without any further incidents. As the small group walked towards the desks, they saw a man standing there that the shinobi didn't know.

"Director," greeted DiNozzo. Sasuke studied the man surreptitiously. He was a trained fighter when he was younger and probably part of a Special Forces unit but had been doing deskwork for a few years. He was favouring one leg slightly, and Sasuke thought he might have had an injury (probably a gunshot, since that was the favoured weapon of the agents here).

"Agent DiNozzo - status update," he said in a deep voice.

The agent stood up straighter and rattled off the previous event. "We watched the kids spar, then Ziva went up against Sasuke. We were standing around talking when we heard glass breaking and saw a rock flying through the window."

Sasuke looked at DiNozzo. Huh, the agent was actually capable of being serious then. The conversation continued.

"Where are Gibbs and David?"

"Probably talking to security," McGee answered, turning to look at the elevator. At that moment, the bell dinged and the doors opened, allowing Gibbs to exit with David not far behind. Studying the man's face carefully, Sasuke could see a mix of emotions. First, there was worry, probably for either his team's sake or their own, and then there was annoyance although he was trying to hide it. Sasuke though he was probably hiding it because of their presence.

As soon as Gibbs drew close enough he started giving orders.

"DiNozzo, take these two to the conference room, get security to watch them. McGee, pull the security tapes of the training room."

Immediately after, DiNozzo started ushering the shinobi towards the conference room. As they left, David was giving a quick briefing to the director and they could pick up fragments of the conversation left in their wake.

"Rock… snake… carving… not as innocent as they appear…" that was all Sasuke could hear, even with his trained shinobi senses. Glancing to the side, he saw Naruto hadn't heard anything extra, although with his senses he may have caught more complete sentences.

It didn't take long to reach the conference room and DiNozzo left as soon as they arrived and he had told them where to find water. He shut the door, but Sasuke's and Naruto's sharp ears detected the footsteps of a guard standing outside the room.

A quick, subtle scan of the room revealed the location of 3 cameras in the room. After the shinobi had angled their faces to make sure lip reading would be impossible, they commenced a hushed, hurried discussion.

"What did you hear?" asked Sasuke. A tactical discussion would become meaningless if the participants were working off different information.

"A rock was thrown through the window; it had the same snake carving as before but there was a message. The message said 'They're not as innocent as they appear.' I think there was a Japanese message too," Naruto rattled off quickly.

Sasuke nodded, absorbing and analysing the information carefully. So Orochimaru had made the next move in his game. The question was, what was he playing? The message was obviously meant to create distrust between the ninja and the agents, but to what end.

"Is he trying to force us to run?" asked Naruto, obviously coming to the same conclusions as Sasuke.

The raven-haired shinobi considered it. To raise distrust right after they had shown themselves to be experienced fighters could cause the agents to investigate them more closely than they would have otherwise liked. On the other hand, the confusion caused by this may distract the agents from the truth about their skills but this was unlikely.

In response to Naruto he sighed. "Possibly – it's really bad timing for us whether he is or not since we got carried away."

Naruto snickered, but Sasuke ignored him and continued. "Write a note to Kakashi. They need to know what's been happening," he ordered Naruto.

The blonde's confusion showed on his face. "Wont the cameras see?" he asked.

Sasuke shook his head. "Kakashi showed me a jutsu. It's a mix between genjutsu and ninjutsu – it refracts the light so a physical picture is present that is picked up by cameras. It's called the Realistic Illusion Technique."

Naruto nodded, accepting his teammate's explanation. Once upon a time he would have argued and whined, but he really had grown in the recent years. Instead, he asked "How long can you keep it up?"

The Uchiha didn't reply, instead he started weaving seals. "When I give you the signal, write the note," he murmured distractedly. Naruto nodded, and fell quiet.

Sasuke finished his seals, and put an ordinary genjutsu in place. As soon as he finished, he started the more complicated combination of the realistic illusion technique. With one seal left, he gave a barely perceptible nod and finished. Sure, it looked like Naruto was standing there looking at him, but Sasuke knew that his teammate was actually crouched on the ground, writing a message.

A minute later, Sasuke could feel his control over the jutsu slipping and frowned. He should be able to keep this up longer… he would need to train even harder when they got back to Konoha. Luckily, Naruto called 'done' just before his control was about to slip completely. He dropped the technique, and once more it was his real teammate standing before him.

"Did you send it?" he asked quickly.

"One of my toads took it," Naruto replied before grabbing a chair and sitting down.

Sasuke, recognising that the strategy meeting was over followed suit.

"I wonder what's going to happen now," Naruto sighed.

Picking up on his teammates plan, Sasuke replied. "I don't know. I want to go home though."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, and see everyone again. I just want this to be over," he said.

The two shinobi fell silent and waited. There was nothing else for them to do right now.

* * *

><p>Gibbs frowned as he watched base security and an NCIS team process the scene. He didn't know the agents by name, only by face and reputation. They had transferred to DC only recently, but they were known for thorough processing and evidence collection. Even so, it should have been Gibbs's own team collecting the evidence due to the relation to their current case. However, orders were orders and the directors were clear – let this team collect the evidence, your priority at the moment is the witnesses. So now, Gibbs was waiting for Ziva to take a few photos on her phone before they both returned to the squad room. Speaking of… Ziva came hurrying up to him while tucking her phone back into her pocket.<p>

"All done," she reported. Gibbs just nodded in reply and turned towards the elevator, Ziva falling into step beside him a moment later. She remained quiet, understanding that he was deep in thought and he appreciated it.

As they stepped into the elevator, Gibbs turned over the recent events in his head. First, a marine was killed when a rock hit him in what seemed to be a vandal attack, but then Ducky had found that the blow should have been to light to kill him. Next, two teenagers who acted older than they were and witnessed the attack had a rock thrown at them, nearly identical to the one that had killed the marine. The same teenagers then proved themselves skilled martial artists before another rock was thrown at them. All three rocks had a snake carved into them, but the last one was interesting. Apart from the snake, there were two messages. One in some characters – he thought Japanese, but not knowing the language couldn't be sure and the other in English – "They're not as innocent as they appear." Obviously, it was intended for them, but why? Were the two teenagers part of plot (of what he couldn't be sure – it was a poor assassination attempt and they had found no reason for one anyway) or were they being framed. It wouldn't be the first time someone had attempted to divert suspicion onto someone else, maybe the perpetrator was trying to get the agents to focus their investigations onto the teenagers. Or their teacher, who could just be using his 'students' as a cover for being in the city. He didn't seem particularly trustworthy to Gibbs anyway, who wore a mask like that? In addition, with the eye patch he had covering one eye, most of his face was hidden from view. Not to mention the fact that he barely looked up from his book throughout the interview, and the lack of care he showed. Thinking back on the interview, Gibbs realised that the silver-haired man hadn't told him anything. All of this together was very suspicious and Gibbs resolved to investigate him further.

The sergeant's past would have to be investigated more too, in case this was a bad assassination attempt. However, in the meantime, a closer watch would have to be kept on the teenagers, and Hatake would have to interview again, along with the girl, Sakura.

His planning was interrupted when the elevator dinged, and the two agents stepped out of the silver machine. Glancing around, he saw that Director Vance was standing in the squad room talking to DiNozzo and McGee with Naruto and Sasuke standing off to the side. He didn't miss that both of the teen's eyes flickered over to the elevator briefly before focusing back on the NCIS personnel in front of them.

Gibbs strode over to the group and began giving orders immediately. There was no time to waste.

"DiNozzo, take these two to the conference room, get security to watch them. McGee, pull the security tapes of the training room," he rattled off. The agents jumped into action and hurried to carry them out. Sasuke and Naruto were apparently listening too, for they started moving even before DiNozzo started prompting them.

In the background, Gibbs heard the director ask Ziva for a briefing of what had happened. She ran over the main points quickly and quietly, obviously hoping the teenagers wouldn't hear. Gibbs suspected they still would though, given how sharp Sasuke's (and presumably Naruto's) ears were based on his spar with Ziva. When she was done, the former Mossard officer went to her desk and plugged in her phone.

At the same time, McGee stood up and grabbed the remote. "I pulled the security video boss, inside and outside."

"These two cameras give the best view of the area," he informed them and pressed a button, causing a split screen came up on the plasma, showing the outside and inside of the building. The outside screen merely showed people going about their business on the busy base, while the inside screen was showing Ziva's and Sasuke's spar.

"Is the kid blindfolded?" asked the director, surprised.

"Yes he is," replied McGee.

Gibbs studied the scene carefully, now seeing it for the second time. He was watching Sasuke in particular. He must have had some reaction to detecting Ziva's movement but he was disappointed. If the dark haired teen had reacted, it hadn't been caught on camera. He glanced sideways, trying to gauge the director's reaction to the fight but the man kept his face completely blank. Gibbs focused his attention back on the screen and watched the conversation play out. He knew what was going to happen there, so he glanced to the outside screen and watched closely, hoping to see whoever threw the rock. They would have to have been close in order to break the reinforced glass over the window and still get the rock to the centre of the room where it had landed.

He watched for unusual behaviour among the passing crowd, but no one was acting out of the ordinary. A second later, Gibbs caught sight of a flash in break of the crowd. He would have passed it off as a shadow from a bird if he hadn't been watching the other screen and saw the window smash. He stared at the plasma in disbelief. Although he and his team has seen the teenagers spar and seen how fast they moved, it should not be possible to throw something so fast that the surrounding people didn't even notice until it broke the window.

"Rewind it McGee," Gibbs ordered. When the junior agent didn't move, Gibbs tried again to get his attention. "McGee!"

McGee shook his head slightly as if to clear it. "Right, sorry boss," he said and pressed the rewind button on the remote.

"Stop," Gibbs said. McGee did as asked. "Play it again."

As the footage started again, Gibbs watched the teen's reactions carefully. They were facing away from the camera until they turned around, but that wasn't what he wanted to watch. Now that he was focusing on them, he saw that he hadn't made a mistake when he saw them out of the corner of his eye.

As soon as the rock hit the glass, Naruto and Sasuke had spun around, an expected reaction. What was not expected, however, was the movement both made to their right thigh. The movement was almost identical to the agents standing around them as the agents drew their weapons.

"Pause it," he said and the picture froze instantly.

DiNozzo returned from the conference room then and silently walked up behind the agents standing at the screen.

"Why are they reaching for weapons?" asked DiNozzo, confused.

Gibbs didn't reply, but gestured for McGee to play the video again. The group watched the teens closely, but they moved a moment later, seemingly remembering the lack of weapons. Gibbs studied their stances. They were in a battle stance, different to the ones they had used at the beginning of their spar. These stances were similar to their casual stances and could be explained as surprise or adrenalin from the crash but that wasn't what he was focused on. He wondered how often they carried weapons if to reach for one was their first reaction to danger.

"McGee, look up anything you can find on Hatake or his students. DiNozzo, David, search the sergeant's room; interview anyone he's ever talked too. There's more to this then a random attack. Print me a copy of the photos you took before you go," Gibbs ordered his team and they sprang into action. McGee and Ziva both went to their computers and started typing while Tony went to his desk and grabbed his bag and waited for Ziva.

Vance watched the hurried movements of the MCRT before he spoke.

"I want this over with Gibbs," he muttered in a low voice before returning to his office.

'Don't we all Leon,' Gibbs thought as he grabbed the printouts from the printer and shoved them in a folder. The team split, Tony and Ziva heading towards the elevator, McGee remaining at his desk and Gibbs climbing the stairs to the conference room where the teens were waiting. It was time for some answers.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Wow, nothing happens in this chapter... the plot should hopefully start moving along more in the next chapter, there's just a lot of setting up to do apparently. Hopefully it won't take me another month to write it, I would start now but I have learnt from experience that attempting Netball practice after sitting/lying down all day is much harder work then it should be so I'm going to move around a bit now :P  
><strong>

**Thank you to everyone who added this story to favourites, story alerts, communities and/or reviewed. I'm blown away by the positive responses you guys have given me and I can't believe ****that this story is nearly at 150 reviews! It's really what gets me to write, so thank you for sticking with me, even if I do update about once a month ^.^**


	13. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or NCIS**

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><p>While Gibbs was walking up the stairs towards the conference room, he pulled out his mobile and called Ducky. After a brief conversation (he cut the talkative doctor off) the British man agreed to prepare Autopsy for an examination. The teens had been near breaking glass after all, and he wanted to make sure they weren't hurt after their spar.<p>

Gibbs reached the conference room when he finished the call, and paused for a moment outside the door. He couldn't hear any conversation from inside the room, and pushed open the door. Naruto and Sasuke both turned and looked at him as he walked inside.

"What's going to happen to us?" asked Naruto immediately. The blonde's expression was worried, and his body language tense.

"I need you to answer a few questions, and then you'll need to be checked out by Ducky," Gibbs replied, watching closely for their responses.

Sasuke looked up in surprise. "Why do we need a doctor?" he asked.

"Just to make sure you're not hurt," replied Gibbs. "It won't take long."

Sasuke's face showed his distaste at the idea for a brief second before he regained his mask, and he nodded.

"What did you want to ask?" questioned Naruto.

Gibbs thought for a moment before asking his most pressing question. "Do you have any idea why the two of you might be targeted?"

Naruto sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "No. Have you got any hints to who they are?"

The agent debated with himself for a moment, before decided there was no harm in telling them about the carvings. Some of it anyway.

"All of the rocks have had a snake carving on the surface. This last one had a message too."

"Message?" asked Sasuke. "What did it say?"

"We don't know. It looked like Japanese," Gibbs told them.

The teenagers exchanged a glance. "We learn Japanese, and might be able to understand it," Naruto informed him.

Gibbs thought carefully. On one hand, the carving could be a message from Hatake, meant for them and only them. On the other hand, it could be valuable for the NCIS team to know what the message was, and if the teenagers lied then the official translator would find out, and they would have something on the teens.

He reached a decision, and pulled the shot of the characters out of his folder.

"Here," he said, handing the snapshot to Sasuke who was closer. Naruto leaned over and looked at the message over his friend's shoulder.

The teens studied that picture for a moment before Naruto stepped back and sighed.

"What does it say?" asked Gibbs, curious as to the blonde's reaction.

"Sharingan," said Sasuke, handing the picture back to Gibbs. "In English - Copy Wheel Eye."

"Does it mean anything to you?" asked the silver haired agent.

He could see that Sasuke was considering his words carefully, despite his blank expression.

Finally, he answered. "My family are well known in our area, people believe we can copy a person's movements exactly using our eyes once they make eye contact. That's why we place so much emphasis on them in out fighting style, it encourages the rumour," he explained.

As a fighter himself, Gibbs could see the value in that. If the opposition were deliberately avoiding eye contact, they would be disadvantaging themselves. In addition, it may make opponents hesitant to use their strongest moves if they were worried about them being used back.

"And this style is called the sharingan?" Gibbs asked, pronouncing the unfamiliar word carefully.

Sasuke nodded. "It's just a distraction, but it works," he said.

Gibbs asked the obvious follow up question. "Why would someone go through the trouble of carving that on a stone?"

The dark haired teen shrugged. "Some people take this very seriously. I've had people try to experiment on me before, to see if there's really something different about my eyes."

"How many people know this style?" Gibbs questioned, worried about other people who might be at risk.

"One other person who was born an Uchiha. Kakashi knows the style," Sasuke informed him.

"Are they in danger?" Gibbs pressed.

Sasuke thought for a moment before he replied. "No. Anyone who wants to experiment goes after me," he answered, but didn't elaborate further. Gibbs considered asking why he was targeted, but he realised that since Sasuke was only young, he might appear to be the easiest target.

"How are you and the other Uchiha related?" he asked instead.

The dark haired teen obviously didn't appreciate the questions, and glared but didn't answer, while Gibbs met his gaze calmly. After a moment, from the corner of his eye he saw Naruto glance at his friend before he sighed and answered in Sasuke's place.

"He's Sasuke's older brother. Sasuke doesn't acknowledge him as being related though," the blonde answered, watching his friend carefully but Sasuke merely started glaring at Naruto instead.

The agent wondered what had happened between the pair to cause the hatred he had seen in the teen's glare.

"Do you know where he is now?" Gibbs asked.

Sasuke replied this time. The teen had more emotion in his voice than Gibbs had heard before, and it shocked him slightly but he kept it hidden from the boys.

"Last time I saw him he broke my wrist and put me in a coma. I don't know where he is, but he's not in danger," he snarled, angry, and Gibbs could see his hands clenched into white-knuckled fists.

"Sasuke," said Naruto quietly, before he could get any more worked up. The boy spun around quickly to face his friend. Neither of the pair spoke, but after a tense moment, Sasuke almost seemed to deflate as he relaxed. He closed his eyes, and Gibbs realised he was getting his emotions back under control when he re-opened them to show that his dark eyes were blank once more.

Gibbs studied the pair silently, before he concluded that he would get nothing more from the teens. They either didn't have any more information or they weren't telling (and Gibbs's gut was leaning towards the latter), but either way it was time to get them checked out.

The silver haired agent stood up and gathered his folder from the table. Naruto and Sasuke watched attentively, but didn't move until he spoke.

"Time to pay a visit to Ducky."

* * *

><p>Naruto watched the exchange between Sasuke and Agent Gibbs quietly, but he was dying to add his thoughts. Even so, he knew that Sasuke needed to choose the amount of information to give here since Orochimaru was after him. He also knew that Sasuke needed to find a meaning for 'sharingan' that wasn't too far from the truth, in case the Snake Sannin decided to show up and completely blow their cover by talking about their shinobi lifestyle.<p>

Even so, he knew that Sasuke wouldn't admit to Itachi being his brother, but that Gibbs would want an answer to that. His plan to answer had kind of backfired when Sasuke's anger had released some of his killer intent to the room (startling the agent, although he would never admit it), but it had got the interview over and done with, and now the group was standing the elevator to take them down to the medical examiner. Naruto was wondering why they were paying a visit to the medical examiner when he remembered that he was a doctor, so they were probably getting a check-up.

That annoyed Naruto a bit, that they didn't believe Sasuke and he could look after themselves, but he was a bit touched by their concern.

Sasuke was brooding, and Naruto couldn't think of anything to say to break the uncomfortable silence that had fallen, so the short ride passed with no conversation. Soon, they were at the sterile silver autopsy room that reminded the shinobi a little too much of a hospital for their liking.

The cheerful medical examiner with a strange nickname was waiting by one of the tables. Gibbs spoke briefly to the man, too quietly for even Naruto and Sasuke's trained ears to pick up on the other side of the room before he left through the sliding doors.

"Hello again boys," said Ducky. "If you would just take a seat on this table, we could begin," he continued. Naruto and Sasuke complied and for the next half hour, the doctor chatted with Naruto while he checked each of them for injuries.

When he was done, Ducky stepped back with a small frown on his face. "I just need to give Agent Gibbs a call, be right back," he called and walked over to his desk against the wall.

While he was on the phone, Naruto and Sasuke started their own conversation.

"I hate check-ups," muttered Naruto, shivering a bit in the cold air since they both had to take their shirts off.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Me too dobe, but that's not we need to worry about. He saw our scars, and they're probably going to think we've been abused."

Naruto didn't react to the insult, but nodded in agreement. "I think he was worried about the one on my shoulder."

Sasuke instantly looked guilty (well as much emotion as could be seen on the Uchiha's face). "Because that hit should have killed you, if you were anyone else," he said softly.

Naruto was surprised for a moment before he realised what had caused the mood change. Sasuke had been the one to inflict that would in the first place. "Stop beating yourself up over it, I forgave you ages ago," he said, flinging one arm over Sasuke's shoulder.

The Uchiha shrugged his arm off, but the guilt lessened slightly. He opened his mouth to say something, but didn't get a chance to because Naruto decided to 'cheer him up' (annoy him) some more.

"Aww, you're so mean Sasuke-teme," he said, punching the other boy lightly.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and pushed him, not bothering to reply verbally. Their small fight was cut short when the doctor returned from his phone call and looked over. He berated them for fighting, before he started on another one of his long-winded stories.

They never got to hear the end of it though, as Gibbs returned soon after with DiNozzo in tow. The doctor promised to tell them the end of the story some other time before he hurried over into the corner. The three men grouped together, but this time Ducky didn't keep his voice quiet enough, allowing Naruto and Sasuke to pick up most of the conversation.

Ducky was talking. "Jethro, they're covered in scars and some of them look like they should have been almost fatal. Naruto has one on his shoulder that's just above his heart, it looks like someone just punched straight through his chest and I don't know a weapon that can do that. They said they train with live weapons, and accidents do happen but these don't look like training accidents. These scars… they're battle scars," The shinobi could both hear the distress in his voice, obviously he didn't like the idea of teenagers being involved in wars.

Gibbs and DiNozzo both glanced over at the pair, who made it seem like they weren't eavesdropping.

The older agent said something, but he was quiet enough that the shinobi couldn't pick up the question. However, they could see Ducky shaking his head and heard his answer.

"No, I don't think so. There's more scars on their sides and arms than anywhere else – like they were blocking or dodging in a fight."

DiNozzo said something after that, and he was also quiet, but the shinobi figured he must have said something like "let's ask them," because the group made their way over to the shinobi.

"Have you ever been abused?" was Gibbs's first question when he reached the shinobi. Both the ninja could see the shock in his eyes at the myriad of marks criss-crossing over their exposed chests.

Sasuke shook his head, and Naruto followed suit with only the slightest hesitation. Technically, the neglect he'd experienced as a child was abuse, but he knew the agent was asking about physical abuse.

"Then where did your scars come from?" DiNozzo asked, confused and obviously not believing them.

Sasuke sighed and ran one hand through his hair. "Like we told Ducky; they're training accidents," he said exasperated.

The NCIS group didn't look convinced, but the shinobi were given a brief reprise from further questioning when Agent DiNozzo's phone rang causing the group to jump.

"Sorry boss," he muttered quickly while pulling the mobile from his pocket.

"DiNozzo."

The shinobi couldn't hear anything that was said on the other end of the line, but just when Gibbs began to ask his next question the younger agent hung up and replaced his phone into his pocket.

At a look from his boss, DiNozzo quickly explained what the call was about.

"McGee and Ziva are back from picking up that man. They put him in an interrogation room," he summarised.

Gibbs nodded and turned back to the shinobi, but before he could ask anything Naruto spoke.

"Whatever happened to us, it's in the past. It really was from training but if you don't believe us it doesn't matter. Right now, you need to solve this case… and I would really like my shirt back," he said, with a shiver at the end for emphasis.

Gibbs looked like he was about to argue for a second before he decided against it and strode out of the room. Ducky handed the two ninja their shirts, and they pulled them on quickly. It really was cold in the silver room.

While they were glad to have no more questions to try to answer about the scars they had accumulated over the years, both Naruto and Sasuke were worried about the new information this person may bring. The shinobi were hoping it wasn't Orochimaru, although neither sensed his presence, nor any other ninja nearby. Even so, that didn't mean much as neither were sensory ninja, and Naruto was trying to think quickly to come up with a plan to at least see this new person.

With nothing better, he called out to Gibbs. "Hey Gibbs!"

The man paused at the doors to the room. "Yeah?"

"Can we watch? I've always wanted to see an interrogation!" Naruto asked, with a big grin on his face. That was as lie – he never wanted to see one, especially a shinobi interrogation. It would be different here though, since they couldn't use physical means to extract information.

"If he's after me, we might be able to recognise him," Sasuke added, quickly catching onto his teammate's plan.

Gibbs hesitated, clearly thinking it over. "I'll take them away if it gets bad," said DiNozzo, quietly but still audible in the silent room.

Finally, Gibbs nodded, and the group hastened to follow him to the elevator. It wasn't far to the interrogation rooms, and it didn't take long before the shinobi were following DiNozzo into the observation room. Gibbs entered the interrogation room a second later and sat down opposite the waiting man.

Neither of the shinobi, invisible behind the glass recognised the man. "What's his name?" asked Naruto quietly.

DiNozzo checked his notes before replying "Edgar Tement."

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><p><strong>AN: I realised something today - in 5 days it will be one year since this story was first published :) Happy first birthday (for 5 days) since I doubt I will write another chapter before then... The downside of this is that it proves how lazy I actually am, because a) I wrote a story (4300 words) for my English class in 4 1/2 hours, give or take, and b) I wrote a story yesterday for a competition between my friends (2400 words) in roughly 2 hours. Using this logic, everything I've written up to this point should have taken me about 24 hours, yet it's taken nearly a year. **

**I apologise for this, but still - Happy Birthday story, and thank you everyone for all the reviews, favourites, alerts, community adds and just for reading ^.^  
><strong>


	14. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or NCIS**

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><p>Sasuke's mind immediately began racing. Edgar Tement was the name of the person who took out the contract. If he had been traced, would he try give up the shinobi to save his own skin? He knew speculation would get him nowhere, so he turned his attention to the interrogation room, where Gibbs was quietly observing the other man.<p>

Inside, Edgar Tement was fidgeting in his seat under the gaze of the agent, his baldhead shining with sweat. He was growing visibly agitated as time went on, and Sasuke knew it wouldn't be long before he cracked.

The teen's prediction was proved correct, when a moment later he spoke.

"Alright!" he exclaimed, and Gibbs shifted in response.

"Why did you bring me here?"

Silently, the agent opened the folder sitting before him and pulled out three photos. The first was a photograph of Andrews in uniform, the second, of him in the café and the final photo was of the sergeant on the autopsy table.

Edgar Tement looked at them briefly and shoved them away. Gibbs left them on the table, refusing to return them to the folder. The other man glanced down and swallowed heavily.

He looked back up at the agent, who met his gaze expectantly. The man looked indecisive and was hesitating; finally, Gibbs decided to push him along.

"Why did you kill Sergeant Andrews?"

Edgar Tement's entire body language changed at those words. "I didn't kill him!" he said, anger visible in his tense posture and tight muscles.

"So who did?" questioned Gibbs.

At this, the other man deflated. He's really bad at hiding his emotions, thought Sasuke, from his position observing the interview.

"I don't know," he said, but it was obvious to everyone present that he was lying.

"You didn't like the sergeant, did you?"

Tement was defensive again. "What's that got to do with anything?"

Suddenly, Gibbs stood up and slammed one hand on the table, the other holding the photograph of Andrews in the air. "A Marine is dead, and you had a grudge against him! What do you know?"

Tement jumped and looked away from the picture. After a period of silence, he looked up at Gibbs, and the shinobi could see the change in his demeanour.

"Alright," he said quietly. "I'll tell you."

Naruto and Sasuke, hidden from view in the observation room behind the glass tensed, hoping that the man was not about to reveal them.

"I hired someone to kill him," Tement admitted.

"Who?" Gibbs prompted, quieter now that his suspect was confessing.

He swallowed before replying. "It was-"

Suddenly, his words were cut off on by a choked gasp. Edgar Tement bent over coughing and gasping for breath.

As soon as it started, DiNozzo began moving the shinobi out of the room.

"Shin-ob-i," he gasped before collapsing on the table. Gibbs, who had moved behind the man in an attempt to help him pulled out his phone and began making a call.

Naruto and Sasuke stood outside the room, now unable to hear what was proceeding inside. They knew what was happening, but the agents obviously didn't. It was a safety protocol, in place since the shinobi first started taking jobs outside the Hidden Continent. A seal was placed upon the contractor, and if the person was to speak to someone without authorisation they would begin choking. It wasn't fool proof, but it was still a complicated seal.

As DiNozzo began to move them away from the room, Sasuke looked back and saw Dr Mallard hurry in carrying a bag. He turned his attention back to the front, and saw Naruto make a subtle sign.

"The seal?" he had asked. Sasuke gave a small nod, barely noticeable, and after that the two shinobi followed the agent in silence back to the squad room.

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><p>Gibbs watched the man with an unreadable expression as Ducky attempted resuscitation but he could see that it was not working. An ambulance had already been called, but the agent had a feeling that they would arrive only to pronounce the man dead. He wasn't quite sure what to feel on the matter. On one hand, the man had brought about the death of a marine, but on the other, the man could no longer tell them whom he hired to do the job. The agent wondered if the teens recognised him, they could at least try to find the person attacking them.<p>

Gibbs was brought from his musings by the arrival of the paramedics. As he expected, Tement was pronounced dead after they had performed several checks and the body was moved to autopsy.

At this point, Gibbs left the room to return to the squad room. He pressed the button for the elevator and as he waited, he glanced at his watch for the first time in hours. Upon doing so, he was surprised to see that it was almost midnight, and the team had begun working early that day. He knew that they would be getting tired, and resolved to send them home when he arrived upstairs. The kids would have to stay at his house for the night, they couldn't spend another night at NCIS and there were no suitable safe houses available.

The elevator let out a bright ding and the special agent stepped inside, pressing the button to close the doors immediately. Granted a brief moment of solitude, he sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. This case was getting more complicated by the hour, and they were running out of leads. He hoped the rest of the team had more success than he did in the interview; otherwise the only thing they had to go on was the dying word of the man. Shinobi. Whatever that was. Gibbs raised a hand again, but this time it was to rub his temples, trying to fight off an oncoming headache.

He dropped his hand and strode out of the elevator, entered the squad room and sat down at his desk. His team and the teenagers looked questioningly at him, and the man knew they wanted answers. Instead, he gave orders.

"Go home," he told his team. "Naruto, Sasuke, you'll stay with me tonight. We would get you a safe house, but we have nothing suitable."

For a minute, it looked like the agents were about to argue, but Gibbs cut them off. "Go – I've already told Ducky and Abby." The final push was enough, and the team bid goodnights to him and each other before grabbing their gear and heading off to the elevator. Naruto and Sasuke on the other hand, moved closer to his desk, waiting patiently for him to be ready.

Gibbs stood up, and managed a half smile at them. "Well?" he said, beginning to walk towards the elevator. The teens grabbed their belongings and hurried after him. The ride downstairs passed in silence, and it was not until the group got into the car that anyone spoke.

Naruto and Sasuke started up a quiet conversation in the backseat, and Gibbs had to strain to hear what they were saying. From the few phrases that he did manage to catch, the pair seemed to be talking about Hatake and Sakura. After a couple of minutes, Naruto looked up.

"Hey, Gibbs?" he called. The agent inclined his head to show that he was listening.

"Have you heard anything from Kakashi-sensei or Sakura?"

Gibbs shook his head, but replied aloud. "NCIS hasn't heard anything. Should we have?" he asked.

He glanced backwards to see Naruto shaking his head. "Nah, I was just wondering."

Gibbs suspected that he was worried about the pair, as there had been multiple attacks on them over a short period.

"I'll be calling them in tomorrow. I have a few more questions," Gibbs said, and the car fell silent again.

The group soon arrived at Gibbs's house, and he gave the teens a quick tour. There was only guest bedroom, which contained only one bed. However, when asked, the teens said that was fine, with Sasuke going on to say that Naruto would sleep on the floor. This led to a small wrestling match between the pair, which Gibbs intervened on before anyone got hurt.

They were just settling down for dinner when Gibbs heard his mobile ring. Frowning, he pulled it out of his pocket and flipped it open.

"Gibbs," he said shortly, standing up from the table. There was no answer on the other end, and the agent hung up quickly, before a trace could be completed. He returned to the dinner table and sat down, contemplating what the call could have been.

"Who was that?" asked Sasuke, his face expressionless.

"No one," replied Gibbs, and he saw a frown flash across that dark haired boy's face briefly before he regained his emotionless mask.

Naruto started a conversation, chatting to Gibbs for the rest of the meal. Sasuke, on the other hand stayed quiet, appearing deep in thought.

After eating, the three migrated to the basement. Gibbs continued working on his latest project – a table set for the children's ward at the hospital while Sasuke and Naruto sat down against the wall. Gibbs thought they might be bored, but a moment later Sasuke pulled out a sheet of paper and a pen from his pocket and started writing in Japanese.

Gibbs watched for a moment before Sasuke looked up, appearing to sense Gibbs's gaze.

"Homework," he explained, and Gibbs nodded before going back to his work. The room fell into silence apart from the quiet scratching of Sasuke's pen and the scraping of Gibbs's chisel. It was peaceful, and for the first time all day Gibbs felt himself relax slightly.

After a while, Naruto got up and left, claiming that he needed to use the bathroom. Gibbs glanced up when he left, distracted, but looked back at his work a moment later. Out of the corner of his eye, Gibbs saw Sasuke fold the paper he was writing on, now covered in characters, and place it in his pocket along with the pen.

"What time is it?" the teen asked Gibbs, breaking the silence that had fallen. Gibbs glanced at his watch.

"10:30," he replied. Sasuke nodded and stood up, stretching as he did. He joined Gibbs at the table, dark eyes scanning the partially finished project.

Gibbs resumed his work, the regular scraping filling the silence, but the agent couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. A covert glance at Sasuke showed that the teen was on edge, his muscles tense even as he leaned casually on the table.

A few minutes later, the sound of footsteps disturbed the quiet as Naruto returned. Sasuke looked up as his friend entered.

"Hey Naruto, do you remember the poem I told you and Sakura, when we were camping a few years ago?" he asked. The blond looked confused.

"No, I didn't remember it then and I don't remember it now. Wasn't it some stupid long thing?" retorted Naruto, his face showing his confusion.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "It wasn't stupid," he protested but let the issue drop. "Do you remember what happened afterwards?"

"Is your memory going, Sasuke? Because you know I wasn't there," Naruto replied.

Sasuke nodded slowly, and stepped away from the table.

"Wrong answer," he said, and Gibbs looked up at the change of tone. It seemed they were about to have another fight.

"What do you mean?" asked Naruto, before he exclaimed in surprise.

Gibbs blinked. In the blond teen's hand was a weirdly shaped blade that had definitely not been there before, while Sasuke was holding a similar blade.

"Where is Naruto?" snarled the dark haired teen, his weapon raised threateningly. Suddenly, Naruto's voice changed. He let off a deep, menacing chuckle that was unlike the previously happy go lucky kid Gibbs had previously known.

He decided to intervene – this was getting out of hand. With his hand resting close to his weapon, Gibbs called out. "What's going on here?"

Naruto glanced over, and flicked his hand. A second later there was the distinctive clang of metal hitting metal and two of the strange knives clattered to the ground. At the same time, Naruto had spoken in that unnaturally deep voice.

"Haven't they told you about me? My, my, Sasuke-kun, I thought you knew better than that," he said, and with a puff of smoke Naruto disappeared, to be replaced by a man who could only be described as snake-like. Gibbs, although a hardened veteran himself, had to supress a shiver at the sight of the man's slitted yellow eyes. The man's tongue emerged from his mouth curling around unnaturally, as Sasuke hissed in annoyance and anger, eyes fixed on the man.

"Orochimaru," Sasuke growled. "Last time. Where is Naruto?" The man, now dubbed Orochimaru glanced at him unconcerned, and now Gibbs was sure he could detect amusement in his expression.

"Naruto-kun? Don't worry, I haven't hurt him. He's simply unconscious. Wouldn't want him interrupting us now would we?"

Gibbs slowly inched his hand towards his gun. As he was about to grasp it, he felt a cold hand grip his wrist. A reflex action, he looked up, only to see Orochimaru directly in front of him.

"I wouldn't do that," he warned, before stepping back. A moment later, and he was back to his original position.

"I'll take my leave," he announced, tongue once again twisting unnaturally outside his mouth. "I'm sure you two have much to discuss, and Naruto too."

With one last creepy smile, the man vanished, and Gibbs immediately turned to Sasuke. The teen looked furious, and slowly putting his blade back to where it had come from. He turned to look at Gibbs.

"Naruto first," he said, before hurrying upstairs. Gibbs hastened to follow. He had many questions, but he agreed with the teen. The safety of his friend came first.

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><p>Later that night found Sasuke sitting with his back against the couch where Naruto was laying, with Gibbs leaning against the wall across from the pair.<p>

"I want answers," Gibbs said, leaving no room for argument.

Sasuke looked up at him, and for the first time Gibbs saw exhaustion pass across his face. "I can't tell you much. You have a meeting with Kakashi tomorrow," he replied. The agent wondered when the meeting had been scheduled, but pushed the thought away for the moment.

"Who was that?" he pressed anyway. Sasuke looked down.

"Orochimaru. Remember when I told you people wanted to experiment on me?" he replied after a moment of silence.

Gibbs nodded, and Sasuke continued.

"Well, he's pretty much the main person. At least, he's the biggest threat to me."

"Is that why you're in DC?" Gibbs asked, mind racing as he tried to process everything.

Sasuke shook his head, a bitter smile on his face. "No, but we had hoped that he wouldn't follow us here."

"So why are you here?"

"It really was for a school trip," Sasuke replied. "And I can't tell you anymore."

Gibbs was about to protest, but the teen must have expected that because he added more.

"Your laws," he said, resting his head on the cushion behind him and closing his eyes.

Gibbs changed his questions. "You and Naruto. What's the story there?" he asked.

Sasuke looked back at him, alert once more. "He saved me, I saved him, mentally and physically," he answered cryptically. Gibbs was about to ask more questions when he saw Sasuke close his eyes again and rest.

"Night, Sasuke," he said instead, before turning and leaving the room. The agent saw brief look of surprise flash across his face before the pair was lost to view. Gibbs let a small smile cross his face before he entered the kitchen. They might have kept some secrets, but they were still a couple of kids who needed protection.

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><p><strong>AN: Hehe... please don't kill me? So sorry for the long wait, but a heap of stuff happened and life got in the way. **

**Thank you to everyone who has stuck with this story, and for reviewing, adding to to favourites and alerts. Also, I'm sorry to the people I didn't reply to for the last chapter, I lost track of who I had and hadn't. If I didn't - then thank you for reviewing and I hope I didn't disappoint.  
><strong>


	15. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or NCIS.**

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><p>Gibbs moved from his position only to check the perimeter of the house, the remainder of the night he spent drinking coffee and trying to figure out the case. By the time the sun rose the next morning he was no closer to the answer and feeling frustrated, he took a drink from his coffee mug. He drained the last of the cold liquid, grimaced at the taste before standing and placing the mug next to the sink. Leaving the kitchen, the NCIS agent walked into the living room. Sasuke had been awake for most of the night but appeared to have fallen asleep at one point, for he woke up as Gibbs entered the room. Naruto was also awake, sitting up on the lounge and looking around.<p>

"Feeling better?" Gibbs asked the teen.

Naruto responded with a grin. "Yep! I'm all better," he said. Feeling relieved, Gibbs turned and walked back into the kitchen and gesturing for the teens to follow him as he did.

"You want breakfast?" he asked, opening the cupboard and searching inside. There wasn't much apart from cereal, so he pulled out the two boxes and placed them on the counter. It didn't take him long to prepare three bowls and hand two of them to the teens while taking the third for himself and sitting down at the table.

The group ate breakfast in silence. Gibbs had plenty of questions but he had the gut feeling that he wouldn't get any answers out of the two boys sitting in front of him. What Sasuke had told him the night before helped confirm that, Gibbs only hoped that Hatake would be able to answer his questions in the meeting that had supposedly been arranged. How Sasuke knew about the meeting was a different matter as the teens hadn't communicated to anyone outside of NCIS since the attack two days ago. Had it really only been to days? So much had happened in that time and Gibbs knew that it wasn't over until they caught the perpetrator, this Orochimaru.

Gibbs was still thinking about the case while they finished breakfast and left for NCIS headquarters. The ride in the car wasn't completely silent; Naruto and Sasuke were talking quietly in the back seat. Sasuke was telling Naruto what had happened the night before and after he was done, Naruto filled him in on what had happened to cause his own injury. Gibbs focused on that, but there wasn't much to hear. Orochimaru had gotten behind the teen and knocked him unconscious.

"Are you sure that he didn't do anything else?" Sasuke asked. Gibbs couldn't see Naruto's face, but there was a pause that suggested the teen had rolled his eyes.

"I'm sure Sasuke, I've checked" he replied. Gibbs added his own opinion.

"If you were injected with something there wouldn't be a mark," he pointed out. "A blood test would be a good idea."

Gibbs thought he could hear Naruto frowning when he replied.

"Poison or drugs would be metabolised by now," the blond said.

"And I doubt Orochimaru would poison Naruto, he wants him alive for some reason," Sasuke added. Gibbs wasn't convinced but knew that he couldn't force the boy to have a blood test if he didn't want to; In addition, they were right about the metabolism. It had been hours since the attack and Gibbs cursed himself internally for not thinking of collecting samples straight away, putting Naruto at risk in the process.

They arrived at NCIS not long after to discover that the rest of the team was already there and working. However, Gibbs didn't have a chance to even reach his desk before Director Vance called the agent to his office. Naruto and Sasuke followed him up the stairs and as the director didn't seem surprised, Gibbs allowed them to follow. Curious about the meeting, even if he didn't show it, Gibbs followed silently until the silver doors were shut behind them. Gibbs thought he saw a flicker out of the corner of his eye, but dismissed it after the director began to speak.

"Agent Gibbs, I have some information pertinent to your investigation," Vance began. The agent noted the overly formal tone.

"What is it?" he asked.

"This information is top secret, you will need to sign this before we continue," the Director said, handing Gibbs an unmarked folder. Gibbs flicked it open and scanned through the few pages contained inside.

"You got a pen?" he asked after a few minutes.

Vance took a pen from his pocket and handed it to Gibbs, who quickly scribbled his signature in the required area before snapping the folder shut and handing both it and the pen back to the director.

"Good, now we can get started," came a vaguely familiar voice from behind Gibbs. The agent turned to see Hatake leaning casually against the back wall with a bright orange book in his hand like he had been there the whole time. Irritated at his uncaring attitude and trying not to let any surprise show on his face, Gibbs spoke.

"Well, start," he said. However, instead of explaining, the masked man glanced up.

"Get down, you three," he scolded, but a note of humour was present in his voice. Gibbs followed his gaze and had to give a double take. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were all sitting cross legged on the ceiling as if they weren't upside down. As he watched, the teens suddenly dropped and flipped in mid-air, landing gracefully on their feet in the middle of the office. Gibbs blinked, trying to process what he had just seen. Director Vance's silence beside him made Gibbs suspect that he was as equally surprised at the impossible acrobatic display.

Meanwhile, Hatake studied the teens for a moment before turning his gaze back to his book.

"Anyway, now that these three have stopped showing off, we can talk," he said.

Gibbs resisted the urge to tell him that they had been waiting for him to talk.

"The short version…" Hatake said before trailing off. "I guess it would be… the four of us are ninjas from the Hidden Continent sent here on a mission."

At this ridiculous statement, Gibbs turned to Vance. "I had to sign a confidentiality agreement for this?"

"He's not making it up Gibbs," the Director replied. "The ninja do exist; we have a treaty with them. The US government put into place certain laws to prevent this treaty form ever being broken and starting a war."

Gibbs remained silent, but his expression as he turned back to Hatake, this supposed ninja, made it clear that he wanted more information. He got the message.

"I take it you're still not satisfied, but you don't have the clearance to hear much more," he said. Gibbs glared, trying to intimidate the other man.

Hatake sighed. "Calm down, I'm not finished. Geez, you're more impatient then Naruto."

He was interrupted by an indigent sound from Naruto which Hatake ignored and continued.

"I can tell you about Orochimaru," he said. The mood among the ninja seemed to darken at the sound of his name and Hatake became more serious, putting away his book. Gibbs was mildly pleased to see that he took at least one thing seriously.

"He used to be a part of our village and he was one of the best. A prodigy as a child, and he only grew stronger. However, he is insane. He was kicked out of the village when he was discovered to be experimenting on people. Orochimaru is trying to learn every technique in the world and thinks that Sasuke can help him do it," Hatake explained. It sounded like the abridged version of what happened, but Gibbs was glad to finally be getting some answers, even if they weren't as detailed (or as sensible) as the ones he had been looking for.

"How does he think Sasuke can help him?" Vance asked. Gibbs remembered the conversation he had had with the kid, about the so-called 'sharingan.' He suspected that it had something to do with that. Sasuke was the one who answered the question, confirming Gibbs' theory as he did so.

"He wants my eyes," Sasuke said, gaze shifting between Gibbs and the director before he settled on Gibbs.

"Remember me telling you about the Sharingan?" he asked, voice revealing nothing of his feelings. Gibbs nodded.

"It's not just a distraction," he revealed.

"With these eyes, I can copy the exact move a person is about to make, instantly. It would make learning techniques that would otherwise take years easy," he explained. Gibbs met his eyes, trying to determine if he was telling the truth only to see that Sasuke's once dark irises were now red with three slowly spinning, comma like marks inside. Pushing his surprise away, Gibbs calmly asked his next question.

"That's the sharingan?" he asked, pronouncing the foreign word carefully. Sasuke nodded, but didn't elaborate further and as Gibbs watched his eyes slowly faded back to their usual black.

Director Vance had other questions. "This Orochimaru followed you here?" he questioned. Hatake took over speaking again.

"He must have, but we were here for weeks before he showed himself," he answered, but Gibbs couldn't read his feelings on the matter with his face covered the way it was. Not for the first time he wondered why the man wore the mask and covered his eye, first with the eye patch and now with the same band that Naruto and Sasuke had worn when they sparred.

"Why haven't you gone home?" Gibbs asked, returning someplace safer seemed like the better option, especially with three kids.

"We travel by plane and that's too venerable right now," Hatake said. Out of the corner of his eye, Gibbs caught a movement from Naruto. He watched surreptitiously as the blond teen whispered something to Sakura, who passed the message onto Sasuke. Hatake turned his attention back to them.

"What are you three whispering about?" he asked. Naruto spoke up, but Gibbs was surprised to hear that he wasn't speaking English. Instead, it sounded like fluent Japanese. Hatake replied in the same fashion and unable to understand anything, Gibbs looked at Vance.

"Leon," he said quietly enough that the ninja wouldn't hear. "Are you sure about this?"

The director rubbed his face as though he had a headache. "I was paid a visit by the vice president this morning," he replied.

A sudden exclamation, in English once more brought Gibbs and Vance out of their conversation.

"Right then," said Hatake. "If you'll excuse us…" he trailed off, already making his way towards the door. He left, followed by Sakura, who offered a nod to the NCIS agent and director before the silver doors shut behind her. Naruto and Sasuke remained in the room, seemingly relaxed but through years of experience Gibbs could see that they were on edge, glancing around often and with their muscles tightly wound. He turned to them now.

"How much of what you just told us can I tell my team?" he asked. Naruto looked at him and answered.

"Everything we told you, you can tell them. It's your laws that prevent you from knowing," he said. Gibbs frowned.

"Then what's the treaty about?" he questioned, wondering just why the government had such strict laws.

"You can't view us using satellites, we can't attack first and we can't send our elite on missions," Naruto answered. Either he knew Gibbs wanted more information or he just felt like talking, the agent didn't know, but Naruto elaborated anyway.

"Sasuke, Sakura and I are the lowest rank you can be, while Kakashi is the highest normal rank under our elites and leader," he explained. Before they could have any further conversation, there was a loud bag from outside the building. Instantly, both Sasuke and Naruto moved to attention, as did Gibbs and Vance on instinct.

"I suggest you wait here," Sasuke said, before he and Naruto raised their hand in a strange position and vanished. Gibbs had to blink a few times to make sure he wasn't imagining things, but after a moment his training and instincts kicked in and he headed for the door, Vance close behind. Outside the director's office, the agents were beginning their evacuation. In the midst of the confusion Gibbs reached his team. He quickly told them to follow him and without a moment's hesitation, the three agents fell in behind him and followed. As the left through the stairs, Gibbs heard Vance in the background trying to regain control over the assembled agents. He appeared to be successful, as the sounds of moving died down. However, Gibbs had no more time to worry about the state of things in the office and he turned his attention to the bang that had rang out. He suspected that it had something to do with the ninja, particularly as it had only happened after Hatake and Sakura had left. He hoped that Hatake had enough sense to get the teenagers out of harm's way but had a gut feeling that if he and his team managed to find the group, the teens would be right beside the man.

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><p><strong>AN: Technically this is before I go back to school, although it is currently 11pm and I start tomorrow... I am so sorry for the wait, but a lot has happened. Brief list: End of the school year, NaNoWriMo, my dog passing, festive season and a new puppy (Australian Kelpies have far too much energy.**

**I can't thank all of you enough for all the support you have given this story, I never expected such a large response when I started it. I will finish this story, there are only a few chapters left now. Thank you again for your reviews, favourites and alerts :)**


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